rsm — fc 


Duke   University  Libraries 
Four  essays  on 
Conf  Pam  *630 

DIIDflOflED- 


FOUR  ESSAYS 


ON    Tllf 


RIGHT  AND  PROPRIETY 


^ 


mmm  by  sodtiiw  states. 


A  MEMBER  OF  THE  BAR  OF  RICHMOND. 


RICHMOND,  VA. 

EITCHIE  &  DUNNAVANT,  PRINTERS. 
1861. 


i'' 


I 


\ 


THE 

WILLIAM  R.  PERKINS 

LIBRARY 

OF 

DUKE  UNIVERSITY 


Rare  Books 


/^' 


Have  the  Southern  States  a  Right  to  Secede  ? 


The  abolitionists  and  their  allies  in  the  northcni  and  eastern 
states,  have  been  engaged  for  more  than  twenty  years  in  the 
most  cruel,  unnatural  and  unholy  warfare  upon  the  peace, 
safety  and  property  of  the  southern  states — disturbing  their 
repose,  and  endangering  sometimes  the  lives  of  their  people, 
and  seeking,  by  all  the  means  at  their  cdmmand,  to  destroy 
the  tenure  by  which  they  hold  the  most  valuable  portion  of 
their  property.  Their  preachers,  presses  and  politicians  have 
habitually  denounced  the  people  of  the  south  as  a  nation  of 
sinners,  in  the  daily  practice  of  iniquity,  because  of  the  exis- 
tence of  African  slavery  among  them.  Our  slaves  havBjjcen 
excited  to  insurrection,  by  the  denunciation  of  their  owners 
and  the  denial  of  the  title  of  those  owners.  Men  have  been 
instigated  to  invade  our  soil  and  slay  our  people ;  and  their 
leader,  who,  in  conformity  to  law,  expiated  his  crimes  upon 
the  gallows,  has  been  treated  as  a  martyr,  and  honors  paid  to 
his  memory.  Our  slaves  have  been  enticed  to  abscond,  and 
then  forcibly  withheld  from  us,  in  violation  of  all  sound  mo- 
rality, the  comity  of  friendly  states,  and  the  provisions  of  the 
constitution,  which  were  designed  to  protect  the  rights  and 
property  of  the  south. 

The  equality  of  the  south  in  the  Union  has  been  denied, 
and  proclamation  has  been  made  that  the  territories,  which 
are  the  common  property  of  all  the  states,  shall  be  appro- 
priated hereafter  exclusively  to  the  use  of  a  part  of  them, 
and  shall  never  be  enjoyed  by  the  people  of  the  south,  unless 
they  renounce  slavery,  although  the  largest  and  most  valuable 
territory,  yet  to  be  settled,  lies  deep  in  the  south,  below  the 


tr^ 


36th  parallel  of  latitude — and  its  occupation  by  an  anti- 
slavery  population  will  be  utterly  incompatible  with  the 
safety  of  the  soutli :  Until  finally,  it  has  been  aunonuced,  that 
the  country  cannot  exist  half  free  and  half  slave ;  that  the 
conflict,  therefore,  between  the  friends  and  enemies  of  the  in- 
stitution of  slavery  is  irrepressible,  and  must  be  continued 
until  one  or  the  other  shall  be  exterminated ;  and  upon  this 
platform  of  irrepressible  and  perpetual  enmity  to  us  and  our 
institution,  which  is  inseparably  connected  with  our  moral, 
social  and  political  existence,  an  obscure  man  has  been  elected 
to  the  presidency,  because,  and  only  because  he  has  made 
himself  notorious  by  the  avowal  of  his  enmity  to  us,  our 
rights  and  institutions,  and  is  regarded  as  the  author  of  the 
maxim,  that  the  conflict  between  slavery  and  its  opponents, 
is  irrepressible.  With  the  election  of  this  man  to  the  chief 
executive  office  of  the  Union,  in  which  he  will  be  the  com- 
mander in  chief  of  the  army  and  navy,  comes  another  procla- 
mation from  the  party  which  elected  him,  and  their  allies, 
that  ^ey  have  the  right  and  the  power  to  compel  us,  by 
force,  to  siibmit  to  any  laws  which  they  may  pass ;  and  we 
know  that  they  already  have  the  control  of  the  house  of  re- 
presentatives, and  will  have  undisputed  control  of  the  senate 
as  soon  as  the  elections,  soon  to  occur,  shall  be  made  in  Penn- 
sylvania and  California ;  and  when  Kansas  and  Nebraska  or 
either  shall  be  admitted  into  tlie  Union,  their  power  will  be 
still  farther  increased.  Nay,  they  already  have  control  of  the 
senate  ;  for  if  the  senators  from  South  Carolina  were  in  their 
seats,  the  vote  of  Douglas,  our  enemy,  woiild  decide  every 
thing,  and  of  course,  decide  against  us.  But  without  the 
senators  from  Carolina,  the  power  is  complete,  without  an 
appeal  to  the  lesser  Lincoln,  from  Illinois. 

For  this  war  upon  them,  the  southern  people  have  given 
no  provocation.  The  puritanical  pretext  for  it  has  been,  and 
is,  abhon-ence  to  African  slavery  as  it  exists  in  the  southern 
states.     But  for  this,  if  it  were  a  sin,  instead  of  a  blessing,  as 


/r->s 


it  is,  the  southern  people  are,  to  say  the  least,  not  more  cul- 
pable than  those  of  the  north,  who  participated  most  actively 
in  introducing  slaves  into  this  country,  and  when  they  found 
it  not  profitable  to  keep  them,  though  no  sin  to  import  them, 
they  sold  what  they  had  to  the  southern  people;  and  the  con- 
stitution acknowledges  and  guarantees  our  property  in  them. 

Our  institution  of  slavery  is  not,  therefore,  a  provocation 
offered  by  us  to  the  people  of  the  north,  and  no  other  provo- 
cation is  pretended ;  for  the  south  lias  never,  at  any  time, 
made  an  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  institutions  of  the 
north,  or,  to  deprive  them  of  their  equal  rights  in  the  Union; 
and  therefore  we  speak  the  truth  only,  when  we  say  that  the 
south  has  offered  no  provocation  for  this  cruel  and  umiatural 
warfare  upon  her — this  determination  to  degrade  the  south, 
then  impoverish,  if  not  depopulate  her,  and  finally,  govern 
her  as  a  mere  province. 

This  condition  of  things  has  naturally  and  necessarily 
aroused  and  deeply  excited  tlie  southern  people,  airt!  calls 
upon  them  to  say,  deliberately  and  explicitly,  liow  they  will 
meet  it.  Whetlier  tiiey  will  tamely  submit  to  it,  and,  in  ad- 
vance, consent  to  and  invite  th(>  liumiliation,  degradation,  op- 
pression and  ruin  which  is  fbresiiadowed  by  it,  and  must  suc- 
ceed it,  under  the  government  which  will  exist  on  and  after 
the  4th  of  March  next,  or  will  resist,  and  by  anticipating, 
prevent  them. 

In  my  opinion,  honor,  pride,  patriotism,  the  love  we  bear 
our  wives  and  children,  the  duty  to  protect  them,  and  all  the 
instincts  of  self-preservation,  command  us  to  resist. 

It  is  said  by  some  that  the  election  of  Lincoln  is  not  suffi- 
cient cause  for  resisting,  and  we  must  wait  for  an  overt  act. 
But  this  doctrine  is,  I  submit,  founded  in  a  total  misconcep- 
tion of  the  case  and  want  of  just  perception  of  the  concrete 
ill  which  the  election  of  Lincoln  presents,  and  of  the  mean- 
ing of  the  very  thing  which  the  objectors  call  for,  to  wit, 
an  overt  act.     Wc  do  not  complain  that  the  people  of  the 


noii-slaveholding  states  have,  by  their  numerical  superiority, 
elected  a  president,  although  it  has  been  their  pleasure  to 
select  a  "rail  splitter"  for  that  high  station;  nor  should  we 
complain  if  they  had  elected  a  non-slaveholder  who  does  not 
approve  slavery,  if  they  had  selected  one  who  is  so  far  kind 
that  he  is  capable  of  being  just  to  us,  and  will  not  violate  the 
constitution  and  his  oath  in  order  to  do  us  injury.  When  we 
behold,  however,  a  warfare  of  twenty  years'  continuance 
(and  more),  unprecedented  in  modern  times,  among  civilized 
nations,  for  its  violence,  malignity  and  disregard  of  social, 
moral  and  constitutional  obligations,  culminating  in  the  elec- 
tion, to  the  chief  executive  office  of  the  nation,  of  a  man 
who  has  evinced  no  fitness  or  qualification  for  it,  and  is  un- 
known to  fame  by  any  act  or  speech  which  should  commend 
him  as  an  example,  or  entitle  him  to  preferment,  because  he 
has  made  himself  notorious  by  the  avowal  of  the  most  im- 
placable hatred  to  us  and  our  institutions,  with  a  denial  to 
us  of  gaiy  constitutional  protection,  the  man  and  all  thought 
of  him  are  merged  in  the  representative;  and  two  conclu- 
sions present  themselves  in  bold  relief  and  with  startling 
effect.  The  first  is,  that  the  spirit  of  aggression  has  not  sub- 
sided or  abated,  but  has  increased  and  become  more  violent; 
and  the  second  is,  that  it  controls  the  government,  and  has 
the  power  to  execute  its  will  and  gratify  its  malignity,  and 
has  selected  its  leader  with  a  view  to  the  gratification  of  those 
passions,  and  the  consummation  of  its  puqjose  of  degrading 
and  disfranchising  the  south.  As  the  bravest  is  always  se- 
lected to  lead  a  stonning  party,  the  wisest  to  counsel,  and 
the  most  eloquent  to  speak,  so  the  party  leader  is  chosen, 
not  because  he  differs  with  his  party,  but  because  he  concm-s 
and  concurs  fully  with  it;  and  terrible  is  the  wrath  which 
it  pours  upon  him  when  he  fails  or  refuses  to  use  the  power 
which  the  party  has  conferred  upon  him  for  its  benefit  and 
according  to  its  maxims;  and  rarely,  too  rarely,  unfortunately, 
are  party  leaders  found,  who  can  or  will  distinguish  between 


their  country  and  their  party,  unless  it  be  to  serve  the  party, 
and  not  the  country.  The  recent  divisions  in  the  south  un- 
happily furnish  both  argument  and  illustration  upon  this  sub- 
ject, which  cannot  be  made  stronger  or  more  striking. 

Are  the  anti-slavery  men  and  abolitionists  of  the  north 
more  exempt  from  frailty  than  the  party  men  of  the  south? 

Those  who  counsel  us  to  wait  for  the  farther  action,  the 
"overt  act"  (as  they  term  it)  of  Lincoln  and  his  party,  in  the 
hope  that  he  will  betray  them  and  transfer  the  quarrel  from 
us  to  them,  deceive  themselves,  and  would,  tlierefore,  mis- 
lead, fatally  mislead  the  south. 

Would  they  counsel  us  to  arm  a  madman,  in  the  hope  that 
reason  would  return  before  lie  pulled  the  trigger?  Would 
they  commit  themselves,  without  protection,  to  the  mercy  of 
the  highwayman  and  assassin  ?  Would  they  commit  the 
lamb  to  the  wolf,  in  the  hope  that  his  nature  and  appetite 
would  change  before  he  devoured  it?  Would  they  advise 
the  watchman  to  wait  until  the  torch  of  the  iuceudiaiy  has 
been  actually  applied  and  the  house  in  flames,  before  he  raises 
a  cry  or  attempts  to  arrest  the  offender?  All  will  answer  no! 
How  then  is  it  that  tiie  people  of  the  south  are  asked  to 
commit  themselves  to  the  mercy  and  discretion  of  fanatics, 
who  for  more  than  twenty  years  have  been  seeking  the  power 
wliich  they  have  now  acquired,  for  the  purpose  of  accom- 
plishing southern  ruin  by  it  ? 

If  there  was  wisdom  in  trusting  yourself,  at  any  time, 
without  proper  guards,  to  the  mercy  or  forbearance,  or  re- 
turning sense  of  justice,  of  your  enemy,  though  he  was 
neither  a  fanatic  or  a  knave,  what  wisdom  or  prudence  can 
thei'e  be  in  committing  the  south  to  the  mercy  of  a  l)lack 
republican  and  abolition  government,  in  the  hojie  that  Lin- 
coln, the  elected  chief  of  the  party,  will  cliange  his  and  tiusir 
policy  towards  us,  when  the  hope  is  founded  on  the  imputa- 
tion that  lie  is  a  knave,  who,  for  the  purpose  of  getting  into 
power,  professed  principles  which  he  did  not  entertain,  or, 


entertaining  tliem,  he  will  now  betray  both  liis  principles  and 
his  party  ?  If  the  friends  of  a  knave  cannot  safely  trust  him, 
how  shall  his  enemies  do  it?  But  in  my  opinion,  there  is  no 
ground  for  the  supposition  that  Mr.  Lincoln  intends  to  aban- 
don the  principk's  which  he  and  his  paiiy  have  professed, 
and  betray  his  party  ;  and  if  there  was,  it  would  only  prove 
the  folly  of  relying  on  the  promises  and  professions  of  such 
a  man.  I  believe,  therefore,  that  the  black  republican  and 
abolition  party  will,  as  soon  as  it  is  invested  with  the  power 
of  the  government,  turn  it  upon  us,  first,  for  the  purpose  of 
caiTying  out  its  principles  in  the  form  of  law,  and  then,  of 
compelling  obedience  to  them  by  force,  if  they  can,  with  the 
advantage  of  being  able  to  say,  that  we  have  submitted  to 
their  government  with  a  knowledge  of  their  principles,  and 
resistance  to  their  laws  is,  therefore,  treason  ;  and,  vrith  our 
people  distracted,  disheartened  and  torn,  by  internal  frictions, 
when  they  find  themselves  involved  in  a  dilemma,  which 
makes  them  traitors  to  the  federal  government,  if  they  obey 
the  state,  and  traitors  to  the  state,  if  they  obey  the  federal 
government.  It  is  not  difficult  to  foretell  the  fate  of  a  people 
thus  distracted  and  divided,  in  the  face  of  a  united,  powerful 
and  vindictive  foe. 

In  my  opinion,  therefoi'e,  the  southern  states  should,  with- 
out delay,  withdraw  from  the  present  confederacy,  and  form 
a  new  one,  in  which  their  people  will  be  safe  from  the  ag- 
gressions of  their  enemies,  and  may  enjoy  their  property,  in 
peace,  surrounded  by  plenty.  I  should  content  myself  on 
this  point,  with  this  expression  of  opinion,  in  the  conviction 
that  at  this  day  none  could  be  found  to  deny  the  right  of  the 
people  of  a  state  to  "  alter  or  abolish  the  form  of  their  go- 
vernment," whenever  it  shall  be  found  to  be  destructive  of 
their  rights  and  liberty  :  But,  admonished,  as  we  are  by  Mr. 
Douglas,  in  his  Norfolk  speech,  and  by  the  president,  in  his 
late  extraordinary  message,  that  there  are  persons  who  deny 
the  right  of  one  or  all  of  the  southern  states  to  withdraw 


/ 


9t 

from  the  present  confederacj''  of  states,  and  that  the  great  aii- 
thorit}''  of  Madison  is  invoked  to  sustain  it,  I  deem  it  respect- 
ful and  proper  to  submit  some  of  the  reasons  which  sustain 
my  opinion  : 

And,  first,  I  refer  to  the  historj'  of  the  constitution.  In 
the  convention  which  framed  the  constitution,  Mr.  Patterson 
of  New  Jersey,  expressed  the  opinion  that  a  compact,  formed 
by  unanimous  consent,  could  be  dissolved,  only  by  unani- 
mous consent.  Mr.  Madison  denied  the  doctrine,  saying  that 
it  does  not  result  from  the  nature  of  compact,  and  that  "  a 
breach  of  the  ftindamcntal  principles  of  the  compact,  by  a 
part  of  the  society,  would  certainly  absolve  the  other  part 
from  their  obligations  to  it.  If  the  breach  of  any  article  by 
any  of  the  parties  does  not  set  the  others  at  libcrt)',  it  is  be- 
cause the  contrary  is  implied  in  the  compact  itself,  and  par- 
ticularly by  that  law  of  it  which  gives  an  implied  authority 
to  bind  the  whole  in  all  cases.  This  latter  circumstance 
shows  that  we  are  not  to  consider  the  federal  Union  as  analo- 
gous to  the  social  compacts  of  individuals ;  for  if  it  were  so, 
a  majority  would  have  a  riglit  to  bind  the  rest,  and  even  form 
a  new  constitution,  which  the  gentleman  from  New  Jersey 
would  be  among  the  last  to  admit.  If  we  consider  the  fede- 
ral Union  as  analogous  not  to  the  social  compacts  among  in- 
dividual men,  but  to  the  conventions  among  states,  what  is 
the  doctrine  resulting  from  the  convention  ?  Clearly,  accord- 
ing to  the  expositors  of  the  law  of  nations,  that  a  breach  of 
any  one  article  by  any  party,  leaves  all  the  other  parties  at 
liberty  to  consider  the  whole  convention  as  dissolved,  unless 
they  choose  rather  to  compel  the  delinquent  to  repair  the 
breach.  In  some  treaties,  indeed,  it  is  exjiressly  stipulated 
that  a  violation  of  particular  articles  shall  not  have  tliis  con- 
sequence, and  even  that  particular  articles  shall  remain  in 
force  during  war,  which  is,  in  general,  understood  to  dissolve 
all  subsisting  treaties.  But,  are  there  any  exceptions  of  this 
sort  in  the  articles  of  confederation  ?  So  far  from  it,  there  is 
2 


10 

not  even  an  express  stipulation  that  force  shall  be  used  to 
compel  an  offending  member  of  the  Union  to  discharge  its 
duty." 

And  in  the  21st  number  of  the  Federalist,  which  was  an 
elaborate  exposition  of  the  constitution,  by  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, John  Jay  and  James  Madison,  over  the  signature  of 
•'  Publius,"  written  with  the  view  to  commend  the  constitu- 
tion, Mr.  Hamilton  says,  "  There  is  no  express  delegation  of 
authority  to  compel  delinquent  members ;  and  if  such  a  right 
should  be  ascribed  to  the  federal  head,  as  resulting  from  the 
nature  of  the  social  compact  between  the  states,  it  must  be 
by  inference  and  construction,  in  the  face  of  that  part  of  the 
second  article  by  which  it  is  declared  '  that  each  state  shall 
retain  every  power,  jurisdiction  and  right  not  delegated  to 
the  United  States,  in  congress  assembled.' "  Mr.  Hamilton 
then  proceeds  to  argue  that  the  defect  in  the  articles  of  con- 
federation, produced  by  this  restricting  and  resei-ving  clause, 
was  properly  omitted  in  the  constitution,  and  therefore  the 
power  to  coerce  "delinquent  members"  existed. 

But,  by  the  tenth  amendment  to  the  constitution,  this  re- 
stricting and  reserving  clause  was  restored,  and,  therefore,  by 
the  admission  of  both  Mr.  Hamilton  and  Mr.  Madison,  the 
power  to  control  and  coerce  "delinquent  members"  does  not 
exist.  Is  there  any  one  of  the  present  day  more  able  than 
Hamilton  and  Madison,  or  any  federalist  more  devoted  than 
Hamilton?  Who  will  be  hardy  enough  to  claim  for  the 
federal  government  powers  which  Hamilton  and  Madison 
denied  to  it  ? 

Again :  In  the  31st  number  of  the  Federalist,  Mr.  Hamil- 
ton says,  "  The  state  governments,  by  their  original  consti- 
tutions, are  invested  with  complete  sovereignty ;"  and  in  the 
32d  number,  he  says,  "that  an  entire  consolidation  of  the 
states  into  one  complete  national  sovereignty,  would  imply 
an  entire  subordination  of  the  parts.  But  as  the  plan  of  the 
convention  aims  only  at  a  partial  union  or  consolidation,  the 


11 

state  governments  would  clearly  retain  all  the  rights  of  sove- 
reignty which  they  before  had,  and  which  were  not,  b)-  that 
act,  exclusively  delegated  to  the  United  States."  And  Vir- 
ginia, in  her  act  of  ratification  of  the  constitution,  declared, 
"  in  the  name  and  on  behalf  of  the  people  of  Virginia,  that 
the  powers  granted  under  the  constitution,  being  derived 
from  the  people  of  the  United  States,  may  be  resumed  by 
them  whensoever  the  same  shall  be  perverted  to  their  injury 
and  oppression,  and  that  all  power  not  granted  thereby,  re- 
mains with  them,  aud  at  their  will."  And  the  10th  amend- 
ment of  the  constitution,  conforming  to  the  ratification  by 
Virginia,  expresslj'  declares,  as  I  have  before  stated,  that 
"  the  powers  not  delegated  to  the  United  States  by  the  con- 
stitution, nor  prohibited  by  it  to  the  states,  arc  reserved  to 
the  states  respectively,  or  to  the  people."  And  the  govern- 
ment of  the  United  States  has  been  recognized  by  every  de- 
partment of  it,  including  the  supreme  court,  luider  the  gui- 
dajice  of  Jlarsliall  and  Taney,  and  by  the  jieople,  as  a  govern- 
ment of  limited  power,  deriving  its  whole  power  from  the 
grants  in  the  constitution. 

It  may  be  safely  ullirmed,  then, 

I.  Tiiat  the  government  of  the  United  States  is  not  a  con- 
soiidiitcd,  but  a  confederated  goverinncnt  of  limited  autliority- 

II.  That  the  viohition  of  the  constitution  by  one  section, 
absolves  every  other  from  its  obligation  to  that  constitution, 
and  the  government  created  by  it. 

III.  That  the  states  have  retained,  and  now  possess  all  the 
attributes  of  sovereignty,  which  they  have  not  exclusively 
vested  in  the  general  govennnent — and 

IV.  That  there  is  no  clause  in  the  constitution  for])idding 
any  state  to  secede  from  it,  and  no  grant  of  power  to  the 
general  government  to  make  war  upon  any  state,  if  slu;  does 
secede,  and  compel  her,  by  force  of  arms,  to  remain  in  the 
Union. 

From  these  positions,  the  result  seems  to  be  inevitable  and 


12 

irresistible,  that  the  states  have  a  right  to  dissolve  the  Union, 
if  they  all  or  a  majority  of  them  agree  to  do  so,  and  that 
when  the  compact  or  constitution  has  been  violated  by  any 
state,  the  other  states,  and  each  of  them  has  a  right  to  de- 
clare that  compact  at  an  end,  and  withdraw  from  it. 

How  can  it  be  otherwise '?  That  the  states  were  originally 
sovereign,  is  conceded  by  all.  That  they  have  parted  with  a 
portion  of  that  sovereignty,  and  retained  all  not  parted  with, 
is  also  conceded.  That  they  have  not,  in  terms,  or  by  neces- 
sary implication,  renounced  the  right  to  withdraw  from  the 
compact,  and  have  not  conferred  upon  the  fedei-al  government 
power  to  declare  war  against  or  coerce  a  state,  has  been  fully 
established. 

Is  not  the  conclusion,  then,  irresistible,  that  a  state  has 
the  right  to  secede  from  the  Union,  whenever  that  Union  be- 
comes an  oppressive  and  injurious  bond  to  her,  or  its  govern- 
ment or  the  other  parties  to  the  Union  pervert  it  to  her  in- 
jury, disregard  its  provisions,  or  otherwise  treat  her  as  an 
enemy  ? 

But  even  this  is  not  a  full  statement  of  the  argument  in 
our  favor,  for  although  the  conclusion  from  the  premises 
already  stated  is  irresistible,  still  its  propriety  maj'  be  made 
yet  more  apparent,  by  reference  to  other  passages  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  constitution. 

In  the  convention  which  formed  the  constitution,  on  the 
29th  day  of  May  1787,  Mr.  Eandolph  offered  a  plan  of  a  go- 
vernment in  a  series  of  resolutions,  the  6th  of  which,  after 
enumerating  various  powers  which  ought  to  be  conferred  on 
the  federal  government,  concluded  with  these  words :  "  and 
to  call  forth  the  force  of  the  Union  against  any  member  of 
the  Union  failing  to  fulfill  its  duty  under  the  articles  thereof." 
On  the  31st  of  May  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Randolph  being 
under  consideration,  Mr.  Madison  said,  "  that  the  more  he  re- 
flected on  the  use  of  force,  the  more  he  doubted  the  practi- 
cability, the  justice,  the  efficacy  of  it  when  applied  to  peo- 


'  lol^ 


13 


pie  collectively  and  not  individually.  A  union  of  the  states 
containing  such  an  ingredient,  seemed  to  provide  for  its  own 
destruction.  The  nse  of  force  against  a  state  would  look 
more  like  a  declaration  of  war  than  an  infliction  of  punish- 
ment, and  would  probably  be  considered  by  the  party  at- 
tacked as  a  dissolution  of  all  previous  compacts  by  which  it 
might  be  bound.  He  hoped  that  such  a  system  would  be 
framed  as  might  render  tiiis  recourse  unnecessary,  and  moved 
that  the  clause  be  postponed.  This  motion  was  agreed  to 
nem.  con.  2  vol.  Mad.  Papers,  732-761.  At  another  time, 
on  the  Sth  of  June,  he  treated  the  idea  of  using  force  against 
a  state  as  "  visionary  and  fallacious." 

The  subject  was  afterwards  revived  by  Mr.  Patterson  of 
New  Jersey,  but  it  was  repudiated  by  Jlr.  Hamilton  as  "  im- 
possible," as  "  a  war  between  the  parties,  and  a  dissolution 
of  the  Union  will  ensue" — p.  SSI.  It  was  subsequently 
brought  up  again  incidentally,  in  a  debate,  when  George  Ma- 
son scouted  it,  and  said,  "  Will  not  the  citizens  of  the  in- 
vaded states  assist  one  another,  until  they  rise  as  one  man, 
and  shake  otl"  the  Union  altogether?"  And  he  was  followed 
and  backed  by  Luther  Martin ;  and  the  idea  of  coercing  a 
state  was  not  broached  again. 

Thus  it  appears,  not  only  that  the  power  to  coerce  a  state 
was  not  granted,  but,  when  asked  for,  was  c.rprcKshj  nfuscd. 
Can  any  man  doubt  now,  even  if  he  be  the  lowest  and  most 
slavish  of  the  submissionists  ?  Will  not  the  people  treat  the 
man  who  talks  of  coercing  a  state,  as  they  would  the  suc- 
cessor of  John  Brown  ?  If  Mr.  Jladison  ever  did  maintain 
contrary  doctrine,  m  correspondence  with  Mr.  Alex.  Rives, 
at  a  later  period  of  his  life,  it  is  to  be  ascribed  to  the  timidity 
and  decay  of  age,  and  Mr.  Rives  may  well  regret  that  he 
ever  exposed  his  weakness. 

lilr.  Buchanan,  however,  in  that  most  remarkable  of  all 
presidential  messages,  while  he  concedes  that  there  is  no 
power  of  coercion,  denies  the  right  of  secession.     This  is 


11 


14 

indeed  the  foundation  of  a  new  school  of  rhetoric  as  well  as 
of  political  ethics.  The  state  has  no  right  to  secede,  and  yet 
no  power  has  the  right  to  prevent  her  from  seceding  !  I  had 
alwa)'^s  understood  that  in  a  state  of  legal  society,  there  was 
a  remedy  for  every  wrong,  and  that  right  and  duty  wei'e  cor- 
relative, and,  therefore,  if  I  have  no  right  to  do  a  thing,  it  is 
my  duty  not  to  do  it,  and  some  party  or  power  has  the  right 
to  prevent  me  from  doing  it  or  to  punish  me  for  doing  it. 
But  it  is  immaterial  to  press  that  enquiry,  because  the  ma- 
terial value  of  the  right  to  secede  is  that  it  imposes  the  cor- 
relative obligation  upon  eveiy  one  to  pennit  secession ;  and 
if  it  be  conceded  that  there  is  no  right  to  prevent  it  by  force, 
then  it  matters  not  whether,  in  an  ethical  point  of  view, 
secession  is  rightful  or  not;  as  whether  rightful  or  not,  it  is 
peaceful,  and  if  peaceful,  it  is  immaterial  whether  it  is  right- 
ful, so  far  as  the  other  states  are  concerned.  But  if  it  is  not 
to  be  peaceful,  then  it  is  of  the  gravest  importance  to  show 
that  it  is  rightful,  as  I  have  shown,  and  to  point,  out  the  ill 
consequences  of  surrendering  the  right,  which  I  will  do  in 
another  chapter,  with  your  leave. 

VIRGINIUS. 


Ought  the  Southern  States  to  Secede  ? 


I  HAVE  shown,  I  think  conclusively,  that  the  states  collec- 
tively, or  a  majority  of  them,  have  a  right  to  dissolve  the 
Union ;  and  that,  upon  a  violation  of  the  constitution  by  one 
of  the  states,  the  other  states  and  each  of  them  are  absolved 
from  the  obligation  of  the  compact  whicli  created  the  Union, 
and  may  rightfully  withdraw  from  it — that  is,  secede.  I 
propose  now  to  enquire  whether  the  southern  states  or  any 
of  them  ought  now  to  exercise  this  right  ?  Before  I  proceed 
to  do  so,  allow  me  to  add  to  what  I  have  already  written  on 
the  first  point — the  question  of  right — that  any  other  view 
of  the  obligations  of  the  Union,  makes  it  the  most  unintelli- 
gible anomaly  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  most  disgusting  and 
insufferable  despotism  on  the  other — a  government,  to  wit, 
which  has  no  power  to  prevent  its  members  from  violating 
the  constitution,  and  yet  has  the  power  and  the  authority  to 
coinpel  the  injured  parties  to  remain  in  the  Union,  and  sub- 
mit to  injuries  against  which  it  cannot  protect  tliem,  and 
against  which  the  constitution  will  not  pcnnit  them  to  pro- 
tect themselves.  In  considering  this  question  of  the  rights 
and  obligations  of  the  Union,  it  will  be  observed  tiiat  there 
are  but  two  parties  to  be  regarded,  viz :  the  majority  states 
and  the  minority  states ;  and  the  rights  of  the  Union  of 
which  we  hear  so  much  talk,  by  which  I  suppose  is  meant 
the  rights  of  the  government  of  the  Union,  will  be  most 
clearly  defined  by  ascertaining  what  are  the  rights  of  tliese 
ma,jority  and  minority  parties.  In  truth,  and  in  a  proper  use 
of  language,  the  government  has  no  rights,  but  obligations 
to  i'uUill,  in  a  coutest  between  its  principals,  from  wiiom  it 


^4- 


16 

derives  its  whole  authority  ;  and  the  whole  question  of  right 
is  resolved  when  the  right  of  the  majority  is  ascertained. 
For  th.at  right  alone  confers  the  authority,  and  imposes  the 
obligation  upon  the  government,  and,  consequently,  the  obli- 
gation cannot  be  more  extensive  than  the  right  wliich  im- 
poses it,  as  the  agent  can  have  no  right  which  did  not  belong 
to  his  principals. 

Accordingly,  Mr.  Hamilton  said,  in  the  7Sth  number  of  the 
Federalist : 

"  There  is  no  position  which  depends  on  clearer  principles 
than  that  eveiy  act  of  a  delegated  authority,  contrary  to  the 
tenor  of  the  commission  under  which  it  is  exercised,  is  void. 
No  legislative  act,  tlierefore,  contrary  to  the  constitution,  can 
be  valid.  To  deny  this,  would  be  to  affimi  that  the  deputy 
is  greater  than  his  principal ;  that  the  sei-vant  is  above  his 
master ;  that  the  representatives  of  the  people  are  superior 
to  the  people  themselves ;  that  men  acting  by  virtue  of 
powers,  may  do  not  only  what  their  powers  do  not  authorize, 
but  what  they  forbid." 

p  cannot  forbear  to  pause  here,  and  remark  how  identical 
are  the  thought  and  language  of  this  great  man,  with  those 
of  the  equally  great  Taney  in  the  Dred  Scott  case.] 

And  in  the  45th  number  of  the  Federalist,  he  says : 

"  The  state  governments  may  be  regarded  as  essential  parts 
of  the  federal  government,  whilst  the  latter  is  in  no  wise  es- 
sential to  the  operation  or  organization  of  the  former.  With- 
out the  intervention  of  the  state  legislatures,  the  president  of 
the  United  States  cannot  be  elected  at  all." 

By  the  "  principals,"  "  the  state  legislatures"  were  refen-ed 
to  by  Mr.  Hamilton.  He  must  have  intended  a  majority  of 
the  principals,  a  majority  of  tlie  state  legislatures,  or  he  stul- 
tified himself  by  first  affirming  that  tlie  principal  is  greater 
than  his  deputy,  and  then  affirming  that  the  deputy  who  has 
no  principal,  and,  therefore,  is  no  deputy,  is  supreme — for 
when  the  majority  withdraw,  or  withhold  their  authority, 


17 

there  is  no  deputy  except  foi-  the  minority,  and  as  a  minority 
cannot  control  a  raajorit}^  so  the  deputies  of  a  minority  can 
have  and  exercise  no  power  over  the  majority,  or  for  it.  If 
this  were  not  so,  then  if  twenty-nine  out  of  thirty  states  re- 
fused to  participate  in  the  election  of  a  president,  the  thirtietli, 
or  one  state,  might  elect  a  president  not  only  for  itself,  hut 
for  the  other  twenty-nine.  This  is  an  absurdity,  for  which  no 
one,  I  am  sure,  will  contend,  and,  therefore,  I  conclude  that 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  majority  of  the  states  may  dis- 
solve the  Union. 

Having  ascertained  wliat  the  right  of  the  majority  is,  let 
us  now  enquire  what  is  the  right  of  the  minority. 

It  will  be  conceded  by  every  one  that  a  minority  in  any 
government  has  a  right  to  protection  and  exemption  from 
tyranny,  and  oppression  by  the  majority ;  and,  in  a  govern- 
ment having  a  written  constitution,  it  has  a  right  to  insist 
upon  a  strict  observance  of  the  constitution  ;  and  therefore, 
Mr.  Hamilton  said,  in  the  78th  number,  that  "  any  act  of  a 
delegated  authority,  contrary  to  the  tenor  of  tlie  connnission 
under  which  it  is  exercised,  is  void." 

The  majority  being  bound,  then,  to  obseiTe  the  constitu- 
tion strictly,  and  all  its  acts  in  violation  of  it  being  void,  and 
the  compact  being  obligatoiy  only  when  fairly  obsei-ved  by 
all  the  parties,  it. results  necessarily  that  when  the  constitu- 
tion is  not  strictly  observed,  but  is  violated  by  the  majority, 
to  the  injury  and  oi>pression  of  the  minoritj',  the  minority 
have  a  right  to  declare  that  they  will  no  longer  submit  to  ihe 
unconstitutional  and  oppressive  treatment,  and  to  witlidraw 
from  all  furtlier  connection  with  the  majority.  If  they  have 
not,  then  there  is  no  constitution  but  the  will  of  the  majority, 
and  the  government,  instead  of  a  republican  government, 
with  a  written  constitution,  is  a  desjiotism  of  the  most  detes- 
table character,  in  which  there  is  no  security  for  life,  liberty 
or  property ;  for  every  one  must  perceive  that  if  the  majority 
is  to  be  allowed  to  place  its  own  intei"prctation  upon  the  con- 
3 


(,'<' 


18 


stitutioii,  and  iincler  color  of  it  to  violate  the  constitution  at 
its  pleasure,  and  hold  the  minority  bound,  there  is  no  consti- 
tution for  the  minority  at  least,  and  every  thing  depends  upon 
the  will  of  the  majority,  which  is  the  worst  form  of  des- 
potism. 

To  such  a  doctrine  of  blind  submission  and  passive  obe- 
dience A^irguiia  has  never  assented,  but  under  the  lead  of 
Madison,  aided  by  the  lights  of  Jefferson  and  Taylor,  she  de- 
clared, in  her  celebrated  report  of  1799,  that  each  state  was 
the  judge  of  infractions  of  the  constitution,  and  of  the  mode 
and  measixre  of  redress,  and  so  Mr.  Hamilton,  in  effect,  de- 
clared, when  he  said,  in  the  33d  mnuber  of  the  "Federalist:" 

"If  the  federal  government  should  ovei^passthe  just  bounds 
of  its  authority,  and  make  a  tyrannical  use  of  its  powers,  the 
people,  whose  creature  it  is,  must  appeal  to  the  standard  they 
have  formed,  and  take  such  measures  to  redress  the  injury 
done  to  the  constitution,  as  the  exigency  may  suggest,  and 
prudence  justify." 

But  as  the  wrong  must  necessarily  be  committed  by  the 
majority,  the  language  of  Mr.  Hamilton  is  nonsense,  if  the 
minority  cannot  withdraw,  and  must  submit  to  "the  injury 
done  to  the  constitution,"  for  there  is  no  other  measure  which 
the  minority  can  resort  to,  unless  it  be  the  newly  suggested 
one,  of  fighting  for  the  Union  in  the  Union,  which  I  will  pre- 
sently show  is  the  most  fallacious,  and  would  be  the  most 
fatal  which  the  south  or  any  minority  can  adopt.  Of  neces- 
sity, therefore,  the  minority  states  must  have  a  right  to  with- 
draw from  oppression,  if  they  are  not  the  victims  of  the  most 
unmitigated  despotism  on  earth. 

Again:  It  was  conceded  by  the  writers  of  the  "Fede- 
ralist," as  I  have  shown,  in  the  emphatic  language  of  Mr. 
Hamilton,  that  the  states  were  sovereign  before  the  Union, 
and  that  they  retained  their  sovereignty,  except  so  far  as  they 
expressly  delegated  it  to  the  federal  government.  It  was  also 
admitted  that  if  the  federal  government  transcended  its  au- 


V 


19 

thority,  there  was  uo  umpire  between  it  and  the  people,  and 
the  remedy  must  be  sucli  as  tlie  people  should  adopt  under 
the  suggestion  of  the  "  exigency."  Now,  I  beg  to  be  informed 
how  the  people,  in  such  an  exigency,  could  act  except  through 
their  state  authorities;  and,  secondly,  if  they  did  act  through 
their  state  authorities,  and  deeming  that  secession  was  the 
proper  remedy  "suggested  by  the  exigency,"  should  deter- 
mine to  secede,  what  would  be  the  condition  of  their  people 
if  taken  in  anns? 

Would  they  be  traitors  to  tlie  federal  government,  or  nott 
One  of  the  first  attributes  and  duties  of  a  sovereign  state  is 
to  protect  its  citizens;  and  as  the  states  retain  all  the  sove- 
reignty not  expressly  delegated,  and  have  not  delegated  their 
right  to  resist  unconstitutional  laws,  or  the  right  to  protect 
their  citizens  when  acting  under  their  orders,  then  their  citi- 
zens, if  taken  in  battle,  would  not  be  traitors  to  the  usurper; 
for  it  must  be  a  veiy  imperfect  and  contemptible  sovereign 
which  cannot  jirotect  its  citizens  when  acting  in  obedience  to 
its  orders,  rightfully  issued.  But  if  the  state  has  no  right  to 
secede,  its  orders  to  that  end  will  not  be  rightfully  issued,  as 
far  as  the  federal  government  is  concerned,  and  then  the  citi- 
zens will  be  liable  to  the  penalty  of  treason  to  the  federal  and 
state  govermnents,  at  the  same  time;  and  therefore  the  con- 
sequence is  tliat  the  states  are  bound  to  submit  to  any  degree 
of  oppression,  and  have  no  right  to  protect  their  citizens  in 
the  exigency  supposed  by  Mr.  Hamilton,  or  the  right  of  se- 
cession is  a  right  which  cannot  be  parted  with,  and  may  be 
exercised  without  violating  (he  constitution,  or  any  law  made 
under  it. 

Again — I  have  shown  that  there  is  no  authority  in  the  con- 
stitution to  coerce  "a  delin(|uent  state;"  and  the  president, 
in  his  late  message,  very  properly  admits  it,  tlioiigh  his  attor- 
ney general,  by  the  most  renuirkable  confusion  of  ideas, 
makes  him  deny  the  right  to  secede. 

Now,  Pothier  informs  us,  that  obligations  are  perfect  and 


20 

imperfect — the  imperfect  being  moral  only,  whicli  we  cannot 
be  compelled  to  perform ;  and  the  perfect,  legal,  which  we 
may  be  compelled  to  perfomi — and  Paley  informs  us,  that 
"Right  and  obligation  are  reciprocal ;  that  is,  wherever  there 
is  a  right  in  one  person,  there  is  a  corresponding  obligation 
upon  others."  If,  therefore,  a  state  has  not  the  right  to  go 
out  of  the  Union,  it  is  because  she  is  bound,  by  legal  obliga- 
tion, for  there  is  certainly  no  moral  obligation,  to  stay  in  it ; 
and  if  she  is  thus  bound  to  stay  in,  there  must  be  some  power 
to  compel  her  to  stay  in  it ;  and  if  there  be  no  power  to 
compel  her  to  stay  in,  then  she  is  not  bound  to  stay  in,  and 
so  may  rightfully  secede. 

But,  say  our  opponents,  while  a  state  cannot  commit  trea- 
son, her  people  may,  and  we  will  use  hemp  freely  upon  them. 
These  are  the  modem  Borgias  of  America ;  and  the  fate  of 
the  Borgias,  I  trust,  awaits  them,  and  the  hemp  which  they 
prepare  for  the  friends  of  equal  right  and  constitutional  liberty 
will  adorn  their  own  necks.  The  idea  of  thus  punishing  the 
people  and  pardoning  the  state,  is  as  absurd  as  it  is  monstrous, 
and  one  which  none  but  a  Borgia  could  conceive  and  suggest, 
a  compound  as  it  is  of  force  and  fraud. 

In  the  first  place,  why  may  not  a  state  commit  treason? 
Wliat  is  a  state  ?  It  is  a  political  corporation ;  and  if  it  is 
by  allegiance  bound  to  a  larger  and  more  powerful  state,  and 
it  attempts  to  overthrow  the  government  of  that  state,  or 
rebels  against  its  allegiance,  it  will  be  guilty  of  treason ;  and 
if  conquered  in  war,  it  will  l^e  degraded  into  a  province  sim- 
ply, and  governed  by  a  viceroy,  and  the  persons  composing 
the  actual  govennnent  at  the  time  of  the  rebellion  will  be 
executed  as  individual  traitors,  as  many  cases  in  history  attest, 
and  especially  our  own.  This  branch  of  the  doctrine  evinces 
simple  ignorance,  but  when  taken  in  connection  with  the 
claim  to  treat  the  citizens  of  a  seceding  state  as  traitors,  it 
imputes  to  the  great  and  good  men,  at  the  head  of  whom 
stood  George  Washington,  the  purpose  to  practice  a  delibe- 


21 

rate  fraud  and  cheat  upon  the  coiintrj',  unless  the  authors  of 
the  idea  were  as  ignorant  of  the  histoiy  of  their  own  govern- 
ment as  they  are  of  the  law  of  nations  and  the  rights  and 
duties  of  states.  I  have  shown  that  the  power  to  coerce  a 
delinquent  state,  to  use  force  against  her,  of  wliich,  as  Mr. 
Yates  informs  us  in  the  secret  debates,  Mr.  Hamilton  said, 
when  urging  the  claim  for  power,  "by  force,  I  mean  the  co- 
ercion of  law,  and  the  coercion  of  arms,"  was  denied.  And 
yet,  the  men  who  whine  and  slaver  most  over  Washington's 
uni,  and  extol,  above  all  others,  the  constitution  and  its  fra- 
mers,  impute  to  Washington  and  his  associates  the  deliberate 
purpose  to  commit  a  fraud,  and  the  actual  perpetration  of  it, 
by  refusing  to  confer  upon  congress  the  power  to  coerce  a 
state  in  terms,  because,  as  Mr.  ]\[a(lison  said,  the  people  would 
be  ofl'ended,  and  would  not  consent  to  it,  and  it  would  dis- 
solve the  Union ;  and  George  Mason  said  the  other  states 
would  never  permit  it ;  and  thou  reallj-  conferring  the  same 
power  in  a  worse  form,  by  authorizing  the  federal  govemment 
to  punish  the  citizens  of  the  delinquent  state  for  obeying  the 
laws,  for  passing  which  they  refused  to  punish  the  state. 

People  of  Virginia,  do  j'oii  believe  that  George  Washing- 
ton, George  Mason,  James  Madison,  and  their  illustrious  as- 
sociates were  capable  of  such  fraud — such  villainy — or  that 
any  but  the  heart  of  a  Borgia  could  imjiute  it  to  them  ?  The 
authority  to  enforce  the  laws  of  the  United  States  was  not 
intended  to  apply,  and  cannot  be  made  to  apply,  to  citizens  of 
a  state  which  has  seceded  from  the  Union,  because  those  laws 
are  no  longer  obligatory  upon  her,  and  the  refusal  to  autho- 
rize coercion  against  a  state  shows  conclusively  that  it  was 
not  intended  in  such  a  case  to  apply  force  to  her  people.  It 
was  intended  only  to  enable  the  government  to  enforce  the 
judgments  and  decrees  of  its  courts,  and  suppress  all  indi- 
vidual acts  of  contumacy  or  resistance  to  the  laws  of  the 
Union,  while  the  Union  is  in  existence.  The  only  laws  to 
which  the  constitution  refers,  are  the  laws  of  the   Union ; 


22 

and  wlien,  therefore,  the  Union  is  dissolved,  the  laws  of  the 
Union  are  abrogated — and  it  were  as  well  to  talk  about  en- 
forcing the  laws  of  China  in  America,  or  of  America  in  China, 
under  this  clause  of  the  constitution  of  the  once  United 
States,  as  to  talk  of  enforcing  the  laws  of  those  once  United 
States  in  a  state  no  longer  one  of  those  United  States.  This 
argument  of  the  sulimissiouists  travels  moreover  in  a  circle. 
It  first  assumes  that  a  state  cannot  secede,  and  therefore  the 
laws  may  be  enforced  ;  and  then  it  assumes  that  the  laws  may 
be  enforced — and  tlience  concludes  that  a  state  cannot  secede. 
It  is  difficult  to  determine  which  is  the  most  oiiensive — the 
law,  the  logic  or  the  patriotism  of  these  reasoners. 

If  the  convention  had  intended  to  deny  the  right  of  a  state 
to  secede,  it  would  have  so  declared,  and  provided  such  re- 
medy as  it  thought  proper ;  ])ut  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
views  of  Madison  and  Mason,  heretofore  quoted,  it  not  only 
failed  to  deny  the  right,  but  refused  to  confer  the  power  to 
coerce  a  state ;  and  it  is  shameful  to  impute  to  it  the  disrepu- 
table trick  and  cheat  which  the  advocates  of  a  force  bill  now 
impute  to  it.  When  a  state  goes  out  of  this  Union,  no  law 
of  it  can  aifect  her — she  will  be  free,  sovereign  and  indepen- 
dent— rand  if  assailed  by  the  myrmidons  of  federal  power,  not 
only  her  sister  states  vpill  rush  to  her  aid,  as  Mason  predicted, 
but  the  whole  christian  world  will  rally  to  her  rescue,  and 
scatter  the  carcasses  of  her  assailants  to  the  crows  and  buz- 
zards. 

I  have  said  enough  upon  this  point,  I  am  sure  ;  but  I  beg 
leave,  before  I  leave  it,  to  quote  two  paragraphs  from  the 
declaration  of  independence,  with  the  expression  of  my  utter 
surprise,  my  amazement  that  any  southern  man  should  be 
fomid  now  to  question  the  right  of  the  southern  states  to  pro- 
tect themselves  and  their  interests,  their  homes  and  their  peo- 
ple, by  the  formation  of  a  new  government,  and  any  Bour- 
bon or  Borgia  among  us  to  deny  it.     Those  paragraphs  are  : 

"  Prudence,  indeed,  will  dictate  that  governments  long  es- 


23 

tablished  should  not  be  changed  for  light  and  transient  causes ; 
and  accordingly  all  experience  hath  shown  that  mankind  are 
mor^  disposed  to  suffer  while  evils  are  sufferable  than  to  right 
themselves  by  abolishing  the  forms  to  wliich  they  are  ac- 
customed. 

"  But  when  a  long  train  of  abuses  and  usuqiations  e^'^nce 
a  design  to  reduce  them  under  absolute  despotism,  it  is  their 
right,  it  is  their  duty  to  throw  off  such  government,  and  to 
provide  new  guards  for  their  future  security." 

Having  tiien  the  right  to  secede,  ought  the  southern  states 
to  exercise  it  ?  My  answer  has  already  been  given  in  the 
affirmative.  But  the  submissionists  say  no.  Let  us  wait  for 
the  overt  act — the  overt  act  by  Lincoln.  By  some  this  is 
said  honestly,  under  some  strangely  misguiding  influence; 
with  otiiers,  it  is  a  mere  fetch  to  obtain  delay,  and  thus  pre- 
vent any  action.  From  respect  to  the  honest,  let  us  examine 
this  idea  of  an  "  overt  act,"  an  "  overt  act  by  Lincoln." 

What  is  an  "overt  act?"  I  presume,  of  course,  they 
mean  ovei't  act  of  liostibty  to  the  south;  overt  then  means 
simply  "  open,  apparent,  public."  Has  not  this  been  com- 
mitted again  and  again  V  In  the  resolutions  of  Virginia,  in- 
structing her  delegates  to  dindare  the  colonies  independent, 
one  of  the  acts  cited  and  relied  upon,  was  the  "  enticing  our 
slaves,  by  eveiy  artifice,  to  leave  us,  and  then  turning  them 
^.gainst  us."  Has  not  this  been  done  again,  and  again,  and 
again — nay,  have  not  our  citizens  been  beaten,  imprisoned 
and  slain,  in  the  effort  to  recover  their  property  which  has 
thus  been  enticed  away  from  their  owners'?  And  have  they 
not  done  more  tlian  "  turn  them  against  us,"  b)^  hiring  men 
to  invade  our  soil,  slay  oiu*  people,  incite  our  slaves  to  insur- 
rection, burn  our  houses,  and  (in  Texas)  poison  our  springs. 
Could  the  devil  and  his  legions  if  let  loose  upon  us,  connnit 
more  overt  acts  of  deadly  liatc  and  war  than  these  ?  Has  it 
not  been  declared,  by  every  non-slaveholding  state,  that  we 
have  no  just  title  to  our  slaves ;  that  the  holding  of  them  is 


24 

a  sin  which  it  is  the  duty  of  the  holy  thieves  to  purge  us  of  ? 
Have  we  not  beeu  denied  our  equal  rights  in  the  common 
property  of  the  nation  ?  And,  finally,  has  not  a  man  Been 
chosen  to  wield  the  power  of  the  government,  because  he 
approves  of  these  sentiments  and  this  warfare  upon  us,  and 
has  proclaimed  that  "  the  conflict  is  irrepressible ;"  that  the 
nation  cannot  stand  half  slave  and  half  free,  and  the  mission 
of  his  party  is  to  make  the  whole  free  ?  If  these  be  not 
overt  acts — open,  apparent,  public  acts  of  hostility — what 
are  or  can  be  ?  Do  our  opponents  mean  to  say,  that  we  shall 
wait  until  our  enemy  has  commenced  the  actual  war  upon 
us,  before  we  take  any  steps  for  self-presei-vation  and  defence  V 
If  thej^  were  in  court,  defending  a  traitor  under  the  definition 
of  treason  in  the  constitution,  they  would  be  compelled  to 
admit  that  the  raising  of  troops,  with  the  avowal  that  they 
were  to  be  used  against  the  United  States,  would  be  "  levy- 
ing war"  against  the  United  States,  and  an  overt  act  of  trea- 
son, before  a  gim  was  fired. 

But  between  states,  a  declaration  of  war  is  war,  and  is 
therefore  an  overt  act.  And  when,  then,  our  enemies  have, 
in  every  fonn  at  their  command,  declared  war  against  us,  and 
finally  selected  their  commander  in  chief  because  he  approves 
the  declaration;  and  the  lieutenant  general  under  hun  has,  as 
I  am  told,  actually  furnished  a  plan  of  the  campaign  in  the 
south,  and  the  secretary  of  state  has  resigned  because  prepa-. 
ration  for  the  war  is  not  now  made,  shall  we  say  that  there  has 
been  no  overt  act,  and  quietly  wait  until  the  plans  of  our 
enemies  have  been  fully  consummated,  their  resolves  matured 
into  laws,  and  their  amiy  actually  in  the  field  to  enforce 
them,  before  we,  the  southern  states,  place  ourselves  in  con- 
dition to  meet,  anticipate  and  i-epel  their  blows  ?  Shall  we 
sit  down,  and  take  no  adequate  step  to  protect  our  people 
and  defend  our  homes,  until  the  amiy  and  the  navy,  which 
are  paid  by  the  treasury,  which  is  filled  by  us,  are  in  the 
hands  of  our  enemies,  to  be  used  against  us  V 


.  25 

When  information  is  given  that  the  slaves  in  anj-  neighbor- 
hood contemplate  an  insurrection,  do  the  people  wait  until 
the  insurrection  is  in  full  blast,  and  the  assassmations  have 
commenced,  before  they  take  any  step  to  prevent  it  ?  TMien 
France  arms  at  Cherbourg,  does  England  take  no  notice  of 
it,  or  does  she  not  at  once  strengthen  all  her  defences  ? 

Do  not  our  enemies  counsel  tlie  jiresidont  to  increase  his 
defences  in  anticipation  of  difllculty"?  Does  not  the  lieu- 
tenant general  offer  a  plan  of  military  operations  against  us, 
and  why?  Not  simply  because  of  his  hatred  of  the  south — 
although  it  is  as  intense  and  vindictive  as  that  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  and  from  a  similar  cause — but  because,  as  a  skillful 
and  experienced  soldier,  he  knows  the  unportance  of  prepar- 
ing for  and  anticipating  his  foe.  Will  the  people  of  the  south 
then  shut  both  eyes  and  ears  to  all  the  teachings  of  history; 
to  the  very  lessons  of  tlieir  enemy;  to  all  the  instincts  of 
self-defence,  and  remain  under  a  hostile  government  until  it 
is  prepared  with  tlie  double  armor  of  law  and  force  to  assail 
it?  Will  they  continue  to  rei)lenish  the  treasury,  which  is 
to  feed  the  anny  and  navy  which  are  to  fight  against  them, 
and  subdiK!  them,  if  possible,  to  obedience  to  their  foes,  and 
the  spoil  and  pillage  of  their  property? 

I  earnestly  hope  not.  They  owe  it  to  themselves,  their  in- 
stitutions, their  homes  and  their  families,  to  place  themselves 
at  once  in  an  attitude  of  defence  and  protection,  and  this  they 
can  do  07ily  by  seceding  before  the  4th  of  JIarch  next.  But 
it  is  said  that  we  must  wait  for  an  overt  act  from  Lincoln. 
This  is  mere  nonsense,  and  those  who  urge  it  stultify  them- 
selves. An  overt  act  by  Lincoln!  What  can  Lincoln  do? 
Nothing  but  execute  the  will  of  his  masters.  The  overt  act, 
if  it  has  not  yet  occiured,  must  come  from  them.  And  what 
can  they  do  more  than  they  hiive  done,  except  by  act  of  con- 
gress to  enforce  what  by  state  laws,  mob  laws,  by  emigrant 
aid  societies,  and  by  bullet  and  blood,  they  have  already  done ; 
and  if  you  will  not  regard  these  as  overt  acts,  when  commit- 
4 


V 


26 

ted  by  the  principals  (the  non-slaveholding  states),  how  shall 
you  so  regard  them  when  done  by  their  agents  in  congress  ? 

But  the  overt  act  has  been  committed  by  the  agents,  as 
well  as  the  principals ;  for  both  have  denied  your  rights  in 
the  ten-itories,  and  refused  to  protect  them ;  and  while  they 
may  bring  what  they  please  into  your  countiy,  you  are  not 
permitted  to  travel  even,  in  thems  with  your  servant,  though 
its  care  may  be  necessary  to  a  sick  wife  or  child.  What 
overt  act  can  they  commit  which  will  justify  resistance? 
Will  it  be  the  Wihnot  proviso?  You  know  they  will  pass 
it,  because  the  lower  house  has  akeady  passed  it  as  to  New 
Mexico,  and  it  was  defeated  in  the  senate,  where  it  can  never 
be  defeated  again — and  if  passed,  what  shall  we  do — go  into 
New  Mexico  and  re-enact  the  scenes  of  Kansas,  and  probably 
bring  on  a  general  war,  or  secede?  The  first,  all  patriots, 
and  all  lovers  of  peace  should  desire  to  avoid,  and  the  last 
will  be  as  unconstitutional  then  as  now,  and  then  you  will 
have  the  government  anny  in  the  field  to  fight  you. 

But  enough  for  the  present.  I  will  resume  the  subject  on 
another  day,  with  yoiu-  leave. 

VIKGINIUS. 


/ 


Ought  tlie  Soiitlierii  States  to  Secede  ? 


Circumstances  be)fond  my  control,  have  put  it  out  of  my 
power  to  conclude  the  discussion  until  now,  and  now  it  is,  I 
believe,  wholly  umiecessary  to  pursue  it ;  at  least,  for  me  to 
do  so.  Events  have  determined  the  question  in  the  affirma- 
tive, and  made  farther  argument,  as  it  seems  to  me,  unne- 
cessary. 

South  Carolina,  thank  God !  has  proclaimed  her  indepen- 
dence, and  the  grand  and  massive  paper  of  Judge  Allen,  the 
chief  justice,  in  fact  of  Virginia,  has  exhausted  the  argu- 
ment ;  and  1  sliould  certainly  desist,  if  it  were  not  from  a  de- 
sire to  bring  out  a  few  additional  authorities.  Before  I  pro- 
ceed farther  with  the  argument,  however,  let  me  render,  thus 
publicly,  the  homage  of  a  gi-ateful  heart  to  Judge  Allen,  and 
express  ni}^  admiration  of  the  noble  and  patriotic  stand  which 
he  has  taken  in  behalf  of  his  country,  and  of  the  pure  and 
majestic  style  in  which,  and  the  invincible  logic  with  which 
he  has  vindicated  her  claim  to  all  that  she  demands,  and  de- 
monstrated her  right  to  resume  the  powers  which  she  has 
granted,  for  the  noblest  puqioses,  to  a  government  which 
has  basely  perverted  them  to  the  worst  uses — to  her  injury 
and  oppression.  His  paper  will,  in  after  time,  be  fitly  re- 
garded as  a  second  declaration  of  independence. 

In  England,  a  zealous  whig  on  the  hustings  is,  in  office, 
generally  found  cousin-german,  at  least,  to  a  toiy,  and  in  this 
country,  under  a  similar  change,  the  ardent  state  rights  man 
and  bilious  democrat,  is  too  often  I'oimd  to  be  that  puny  non- 
descript, called  "  eminently  conservative."  It  is  exceedingly 
gratifying,  therefore,  to  those  who  have  known  this  pure  and 


28 

eminent  jndgc  through  long  years,  to  find  that  the  charms  of 
office  and  the  quarterly  dip  into  the  treasury,  have  not 
changed  his  nature,  or  confused  his  intellect,  and  that  he  is 
still  the  same  calm,  determined,  clear  headed  advocate  of  the 
rights  of  the  states  and  the  south,  which  he  was  when  he  en- 
tered life.     Now  for  our  mutton. 

The  enemies  of  secession  may  be  divided  into  four  classes : 

1st.  The  anti-slavery  men ;  of  whom  there  are  a  few,  and 
thank  God,  only  a  few,  and  they  are  generally  well  known  ;  in 
the  south.  They  would  prevent  secession  if  they  could,  in 
order  to  bring  the  south  under  the  power  of  Lincoln's  govern- 
ment, with  a  view  to  abolish  slavery,  and,  as  they  Ijelieve, 
get  our  lands. 

2nd.  The  political  "rep's,"  who  have  subsisted  long  upon 
the  hope  of  a  good  supply  of  federal  pap,  as  the  paupers  in 
Paris  feed  on  the  odors  of  the  kitchen,  and  the  few  followers 
who  constitute  their  tail.  They  have  nothing  to  hope  from 
a  southern  government,  and  therefore,  they  would  subject  the 
south  to  any  humiliation  or  injury  in  order  to  presei-ve  the 
form  of  the  government  for  the  use  of  the  nortli,  from  which 
their  pap  must  come. 

3rd.  The  modem  federalists.  They  are  honest  submis- 
siouists,  because  they  regard  the  government  of  the  United 
States  as  a  consolidated  government  acting  tipon  individuals, 
and  therefore  they  repudiate  the  idea  of  sovereignty  in  the 
states.  They  love  a  strong  government  for  its  own  sake,  and 
hate  with  equal  intensity  every  thing  like  popular  or  demo- 
cratic government ;  and  thus  they  love  an  ovei-poweriug  federal 
government,  and  detest  the  state  governments  and  the  power 
of  the  people,  although  in  the  debate  with  Hemy  in  the  con- 
vention of  Virginia,  Edmund  Pendleton  said,  "  I  never  con- 
ceived it  to  be  a  consolidated  government."  And  Jolui  Mar- 
shall, the  great  and  illustrious  leader  of  the  federal  party, 
said  in  the  same  debate,  "We,  sir,  idolize  democracy.  Those 
who  oppose  it,  have  bestowed  eulogiums  on  monarchy.     We 


29 

prefer  this  system  to  any  mouavchy,  because  we  are  con- 
vinced that  it  has  a  greater  tendency  to  secure  our  liberty 
and  promote  our  happiness.  We  admire  it,  because  we  think 
it  a  well  regulated  democracy."  But  the  modern  federalist 
is  wiser  than  Pendleton  and  more  federal  than  Marshall. 

4th.  The  stock  owners,  and  old  men,  who  think  of  nothing 
but  their  dividends  and  a  comfortable  old  age,  and  who  ai'e, 
therefore,  always  in  favor  of  the  existing  government,  if  it 
does  not  interfere  with  tlieir  ease,  and  exceedingly  revolu- 
tionary if  it  does.     Any  change  is  to  them  an  ague  fit. 

There  are  some  whom  sheer  fear  controls ;  but  they  are 
not  sufficiently  numerous  to  be  called  a  class.  The  advocates 
of  secession  constitute  on  the  other  hand,  really  one  great 
class.  They  are  the  lovers  of  well  defined  constitutional 
government,  and  so  of  constitutional  liberty ;  who  are  impa- 
tient of  any  violation  of  their  rights,  and  value  the  African 
slave,  not  only  because  he  is  profitable  to  them,  but  because 
he  fills  the  space,  which,  if  it  could  live  in  his  clime,  the 
mobocratic  element  would  occupy,  and  thus  secures  the  only 
nobility  of  men  and  women,  which  the  really  free  white  man 
can  tolerate ;  and  they  believe  that  if  the  slaves  were  ex- 
cluded and  the  mob  introduced,  there  could  be  no  republic : 
That  the  mob  would  prevail  until  quelled  by  military  power, 
and  that  would  be  succeeded  by  a  despot. 

These  constitute  the  great  sentimental  south.  However 
amusing,  and  in  some  respects,  beneficial,  it  may  be  to  ex- 
amine farther  the  motives  of  each  of  these  classes  of  svUmiis- 
sionists,  it  will,  I  think,  be  fiiund  to  be  entirely  unnecessary  to 
examine  those  of  any  but  the  first  class,  in  order  to  determine 
the  question  in  hand.  I  take  up  then,  the  abolitionists  and 
their  acknowledged  allies,  who  now  control  the  nation.  And 
first,  let  us  enquire,  wJiy  arc  they  abolitionists?  They  say 
they  are  so,  because  "  slavery  is  the  sum  of  all  villainies" — 
that  it  is  a  crime,  and  their  president  elect  has  proclaimed 
from  the  stump  at  Leavenworth,  that  whenever  touched,  it 


30 

is  to  be  dealt  witli  as  a  crime ;  and  upon  this  ground  they 
profess  to  justify  themselves  in  the  assertion  that  slavery  has 
no  constitutional  sanction  or  protection,  and  there  shall  never 
be  another  acre  of  the  territory  of  the  Union  soiled  by  the 
foot  of  a  slave.  These  are  the  known  and  avowed  sentiments 
of  the  party  which  elected  Mr.  Lincoln;  and,  accordingly, 
the  present  house  of  representatives  has  rejected  a  resolution 
recognizing  property  in  slaves,  and  the  committee  of  thirty- 
three,  in  the  house,  and  tliirteen,  in  the  senate,  have  virtually 
disbanded,  because  of  the  determination  of  the  black  republi- 
cans to  abate  nothing  from  their  creed.  Does  the  leader,  who 
is  to  be  the  executive  officer  of  the  party,  concur  with  the 
party  ?  I  have  shown,  by  his  speech  at  Leavenworth,  that  he 
did  concur,  and  I  submit  that  his  silence  at  this  moment  shows 
that  he  still  concurs ;  because,  if  he  does  not,  and  has  any 
spark  of  patriotism  or  courage  in  hun,  he  would  say  so.  But 
it  is  not  necessary  to  rely  upon  negative  testunony,  however 
pregnant  with  the  affirmative,  because  there  is  the  most 
direct  and  positive  affirmative  testimony.  Thurlow  Weed, 
of  Albany,  is  well  known  as  a  political  editor  and  intriguer, 
of  the  Seward  and  Lincoln  school.  He  has  lately  paid  a  visit 
to  Lincoln,  of  which  so  much  has  been  said  in  the  news- 
papers that  he  made  the  following  publication  of  the  result 
of  his  visit,  which  I  have  cut  out  of  the  New  York  Herald. 
Here  it  is : 

Thurlow  Weed's  opinion  of  the  President  elect. 

Albany,  Dec.  24,  1860. — Thurlow  Weed,  in  an  article  in  to-night's 
Journal,  alludes  to  his  recent  visit  to  Springfield,  in  the  following  terms  : 

Since  the  newspapers  have  made  our  recent  visit  to  Springfield  the 
occasion  of  remark,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  say  that  an  interview  with 
Mr.  Lincoln  has  confirmed  and  strengthened  our  confidence  in  his  fitness 
for  the  high  position  he  is  to  occupy ;  of  his  eminent  qualifications  for 
the  great  trust  reposed  in  him;  of  his  enlightened  appreciatiim  of  the 
difficulties  and  dangers  that  surround  us  ;•  of  his  desire  that  the  free 
states,  if  in  any  thing  delimjuent,  shall  fulfill  their  constitutional  duties; 
of  his  determination  to  require  from  all  the  states  an  eiifoieemciit  of  the 
laws  and  obedience  to  the  constitution ;  and,  finally,  of  his  earnest  and 
inflexible  devotion  to  the  principles  and  sympathies  of  republicanism. 


31 

None  can  donbt  then  that  Lincoln  is  ^^  earnest  and  inflexible 
in  his  devotion  to  the  principles  and  sympiathics  of  republicanism." 
Aye !  Not  to  the  principles  merely,  but  to  the  spnpatliies 
of  republicanism.  Sympathies  of  republicanism  !  What  are 
they  ?  Sjanpathy  for  your  slaves  and  hatred  of  you,  their 
masters !  Why  do  such  people  object  to  your  seceding  from 
the  union  with  them  ?  Why  do  they  desire  to  continue  in 
daily  connection  with  your  crimes  ?  Is  it  for  the  purpose  of 
protecting  and  perpetuating  the  crime  and  the  criminals? 
Every  one  must  answer  wo,  as  Lincoln  has  answered  no,  when 
he  said  the  crime  must  be  dealt  with  as  a  crime.  Then  of 
necessity  it  must  be  for  the  pnipose  of  suppressing  and  exter- 
minating the  crime — n^hich  ix  slavery!  So  determined  ai'e  they 
to  continue  this  criminal  nniou  with  you,  that  the  whole 
north  rings  with  the  cry  to  arms,  to  preserve  it  and  whip  the 
south  into  submission.  Listen  to  the  reports  of  the  N.  Y. 
Herald  of  to-daj^ : 

Preparations  for  war  in  Massachusetts  and  JVcir  Hampshire. 

Boston,  December  29. — There  is  no  disguiping  the  fact  that  Massa- 
chuBetts  is  ready  to  respond  promptly  to  any  demand  made  upon  lier  for 
troops  to  sutitiiiu  the  Union  and  lliv  laws.  I  hani  to-day,  from  the  highest 
authority,  that  seven  thousand  troops  can  be  put  in  marching  order  on 
twentj'-i'our  hours'  notice,  and  that  one  hundred  and  forty-five  thousand 
men  are  enrolled  in  the  militia  of  this  state.  Of  this  number  twenty 
thousand  could  be  easily  mustered. 

The  financial  resources  of  Massachusetts  were  never  in  better  condi- 
ticui  for  such  an  emergency,  and  the  people  arc  enthusiastic  to  be  enrolled. 

Adjutant  (ieneral  Alibott,  of  New  Hampshire,  arrived  here  tliis  after- 
noon from  Washington,  and  left  innuediately  for  Concord,  with  the  in- 
tention of  recommending  to  Governor  Goodwin  that  the  granite  state  be 
immediately  ])ut  upon  a  war  footing. 

Considerable  excitement  exists  in  consequence  of  the  reports  that  the 
muskets  removed  from  the  Springfield  armory  have  been  distributed  over 
the  south.  Mr.  Whitney,  collector  of  this  port,  late  superintendent  of  the 
armory  at  Springfield,  returned  from  there  to-uiglit,  liaving  been  there,  it 
is  supposed,  witli  reference  to  the  rciuirt  from  Washingtiui  to  the  Herald, 
that  t\\(Milv  thousand  muskets  have  recently  been  taken  from  the  armory 
and  sold  to  >'irginia. 

The  feeling  is  deep  and  not  to  be  misinterpreted.  There  is  no  mis- 
taking the  fact  that  Massachusetts  is  in  earnest  in  this  crisis.  The  mer- 
chants are  plucky,  and  the  name  of  Anderson  is  uppermost  in  every  con- 
versation. 


32 

It  is  well  known  here  among  the  leading  republicans,  that  several  of 
the  governors  of  the  great  non-slaveholding  states  have  agreed  to  recom- 
mend a  firm  and  determined  resistance  to  the  secession  movement  of  the 
southern  states.  The  first  states  that  will  proclaim  this  policy  in  their 
forthcoming  messages  to  their  respective  legislatures,  are  New  York, 
Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  to  be  followed  by  the  other  northwestern  states. 
The  south  are  beginning  to  understand  that  they  will  have  no  sympathy 
or  strength  in  the  north,  except  from  those  who  are  opposed  to  the  re- 
publican party.  These  facts,  just  developed,  are  doing  much  harm  in 
the  south,  and"  accelerating  the  secession  movement. 

The  Pennsylvania  legislature  will  meet  on  Tuesday  next.  I  learn  from 
a  well  informed  gentleman,  just  arrived  from  Ilarrisburg,  who  saw  and 
conversed  with  the  state  officers  and  lei;lsliit(irs  cleet,  that  one  of  the  first 
acts  of  that  government  will  be  an  appropriation  of  from  one  to  five  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  and  one  hundred  thousand  nien,  armed  and  equipped,  to 
aid  the  federal  government  in  the  iiresorvaticm  of  the  Union.  It  is  be- 
lieved by  Governor  Curtin  that  nearly  all  the  northern  states  will  follow 
this  example. 

The  conduct  of  Major  Anderson  is  universally  commended  by  northern 
men  of  all  parties,  and  by  all  Union  men  from  the  border  states. 


From  the  Pittsburg  Jounial,  Dec.  28. 
Public  meeting  in  Pittsburg,  Pa. — The  big  gun  controversy. 

The  most  demonstrative  public  meeting  that  we  have  had  in  our  midst 

in  a  long  time,  trausj)ired  at  the  courthouse  yesterdaj'  afternoon.  There 
seemed  to  have  been  a  liiisiinderstandiiig  at  tlie  time  of  the  meeting,  and 
a  large  number  adjourned  to  the  Diamond  market  house,  but  there  being 
no  meeting  there,  thej'  returned  to  the  courthouse,  and  there  they  or- 
ganized, and  in  an  assemblage  of  some  five  or  six  thousand,  the  follow- 
ing proceedings  were  had.     The  following  letter  was  read  at  the  meeting : 

Alleghany  Arsenal,  Dec.  27,  I860. 

To  his  Honor,  G.  Wilso7i,  Mayor  of  Pittsburg  : 

Sir, 

It  is  perceived  that  some  of  the  city  papers  in  their  morning 
issues,  persist  in  publishing  statements  in  regard  to  the  operations  of  the 
United  States  arsenal,  that  should  be  corrected.  I  therefore  respectfully 
request  that  at  the  public  meeting  of  the  citizens,  to  take  place  this  after- 
noon, they  will  have  this  paper  read.  The  statement  of  the  Dispatch, 
that  I  informed  its  reporter  last  evening  that  there  were  no  more  orders 
to  be  filled,  was  in  reference  to  bis  enquiry  respecting  the  heavy  guns. 
There  are  orders  yet  to  till  of  six  months'  standing,  and  more.  The 
stores  referred  to  in  the  Dispatch  as  '  boxes  of  muskets  that  left  the  ar- 
senal that  afternoon,'  were  fifty  sets  of  horse  equipments  (in  part  of  an 
order  for  five  hundred  sets)  destined  for  Texas  arsenal,  for  the  United 
States  troops  serving  on  that  frontier.  So  likewise  another  issue  will  be 
made  in  a  day  or  two  of  ninety  other  sets,  made  by  Messrs.  Hartly  & 
Co.,  contractors,  of  Pittsburg,  and  now  in  their  workshops,  who  can  state 


33 

how  long  they  have  had  the  order.  These  are  destined  for  Leavenworth 
arsenal,  for  the  troops  in  that  vicinity.  Furthermore,  there  is  to  be  issued 
to  the  state  of  Tennessee,  under  the  act  of  1808,  for  arming;  the  militia, 
700  rifle  muskets,  to  replace  which  1,000  have  been  ordered  from  Harpers 
Ferry  armory.  And,  finally,  of  unfulfilled  orders,  500  mnskcts  belonging 
to  and  sent  here  by  the  state  of  Kentucky,  to  be  altered  to  percussion, 
are  now  being  altered  and  refitted,  the  expense  of  which  to  be  charged  to 
that  state,  under  the  same  act  of  congress  of  1808. 

JOHN  SYMINGTON, 

Major  of  Ordnance. 

After  which  the  following  resolutions  were  presented  and  passed : 

Whereas,  as  citizens  of  the  United  States,  attached  to  the  Union,  the 
constitution  and  the  laws,  we  have  learned  with  surprise  and  iudiguation 
that  large  quantities  of  lieavy  ordnance  have  been  ordered  from  the  Alle- 
ghany arsenal  to  points  where  no  apparent  immediate  necessity  for  them 
exists,  while  other  points  where  the  necessity  does  exist  are  left  unde- 
fended, and  where  they  will  bo  exposed  to  seizure  at  the  liands  of  those 
who  arc  now  in  a  state  of  actual  or  threatened  revolt  against  the  goveru- 
mcnt;  and,  whereas,  our  remonstrances  against  this  act  have  received  no 
notice  from  the  proper  aulhorities  at  Wasliington  city;  therefore,  be  it 

1.  Resolved,  that  notwithstanding  the  notorious  fact  that  our  rulers  are 
disanning  the  friends,  and  arming  tlie  enemies  of  the  Union,  we  feel  that 
its  friends  are  strong  enongh,  even  without  other  arms  than  their  own,  to 
sustain  the  constitution  and  the  laws,  and  to  follow  and  retake  the  guna 
thus  ordered  to  be  removed,  in  case  they  shall  be  traitorously  employed 
against  them. 

2.  Resolved,  that  we  therefore  deprecate  any  interference  with  the  ship- 
ment of  the  said  arras  under  government  orders,  however  inopportune  or 
impolitic  the  same  may  be,  believing  it  would  give  color  to  the  imputation 
that  we  have  more  respect  for  federal  law  than  our  fellow  citizens  of  the 
seceding  state  of  South  Carolina,  and  decrease  our  moral  much  more 
than  it  could  increase  our  material  power. 

3.  Resolved,  that  we  profess  to  be  loyal  to  the  Union  of  these  statca ; 
that  we  regard  the  people  of  the  south  as  much  our  fellow  citizens  as 
those  of  the  northern  states;  that  we  regret  that  demagogues  and  traitors 
should  have  been  able  to  deceive  them  into  a  contrarj'  belief;  and  that, 
knowing  no  party  here,  and  no  north  or  south,  we  intend  to  observe  our 
part  of  the  compact,  and  shall  expect  and  insist  that  all  others  shall  do 
the  same. 

4.  Resolved,  that  we  greatly  deplore  the  existence  of  such  a  state  of 
things  in  connection  with  the  aduiiiiistration  of  important  departments  of 
the  public  service  at  Washington  as  to  have  so  shaken  the  confidence  of 
the  people  of  the  free  states  therein,  as  to  minister  occasion  for  the  dis- 
turbance which  has  prevailed  amongst  us. 

5.  Resolved,  that  to  restore  that  confidence  which  every  administration 
ought  to  enjoy  in  a  crisis  like  tlie  present,  it  behooves  the  president  of 
the  United  States  to  purge  his  cabinet  of  every  man  who  is  known  to 
have  been  giving  .aid  and  comfort,  or  in  any  wise  countenancing  and 
abetting  the  actual  or  apprehended  revolt  of  any  of  the  states  against 
the  authority  of  the  constitution  and  the  laws  of  this  Union. 

G.  Resolved,  that  while  Pennsylvania  is  on  guard  at  the  federal  capita}, 

5 


34 

it  is  her  especial  dnty  to  look  to  the  fidelity  of  her  sons,  and  in  that  view 
we  call  ii|)on  the  president  of  the  United  States,  as  a  citizen  of  the  com- 
monwealth, to  see  tliat  the  republic  receives  no  detriment  while  it  con- 
tinues In  his  hands. 

Gen.  Williaiii  Robinson,  jr.,  presided,  and  Hon.  Thomas  Williams  and 
Gen.  J.  K.  Mdorliead,  M.  C.,  were  the  principal  spokesmen.  Gen.  Moor- 
Lead  spdlce  in  iierfect  consonance  with  the  tone  of  the  resolutions,  and 
Hon.  Tlionias  Williams  urged  the  passage  of  the  resolutions — the  vote 
for  which  was  unanimous,  with  a  very  tew  exceptions.  Hon.  Charles 
Shaler  made  a  speech  inside  of  the  courthouse  to  a  large  audience,  which 
set  forth  that  resistance  to  the  federal  authority  at  the  ar.scnal  would  be 
treasonable,  but  opposition  to  transportation  through  our  streets  would 
only  be  in  violation  of  state  laws,  and  resistance  to  their  actual  shipment 
would  be  as  justifiable  as  the  acts  of  .South  Carolina. 

The  resolutions  above  given,  as  adopted  at  the  meeting,  have  the  sup- 
port of  a  majority  of  our  community,  and  arc  eminently  worthy  of  the 
endorsement  of  all. 

Our  telegiaphic  dispatches  give  the  latest  news  from  head  quarters  of 
Beeession.  Our  people  are  determined  to  secure  justice,  and  nothing 
short  of  it  will  satisfy  them. 

And  the  following  from  the  Richmond  Whig : 

It  is  stated  that  General  Scott,  several  days  ago,  submitted  to  the  pre- 
sident a  plan  for  the  blockade  of  Charleston,  besides  strongly  reinforcing 
all  'he  southern  garrisons,  and  other  military  preparations ;  but  this  was 
not  favorably  received. 

Sumner  and  Hickman  denounce  compromises. 

Hon.  Charles  Sumner  of  Massachusetts  was  serenaded  in  Philadelphia 
on  Wednesday  evening,  after  delivering  a  lecture.  He  responded  by  de- 
claring that  the  last  election  decided  that  the  territories  should  be  forever 
free.  He  was  opposed  to  making  any  more  compromises,  and  he  thought 
the  people  were  also.  All  that  is  needed  now  is  firmness  and  prudence ; 
he  thought  the  party  would  in  future  show  the  same  firmness  they  had  at 
the  ballot-box.     [Applause.] 

Hon.  John  Hickman  also  spoke  as  follows  : 

I  never  was  a  compromise  man,  nor  am  I  one  now.  [Applause.]  It 
is  no  use  for  the  north  to  compromise;  it  is  not  safe.  There  is  an  eternal 
antagonism  between  freedom  and  slavery,  and  it  must  be  met  now,  and 
the  interest  of  the  white  man  sliould  not  be  forgotten,  so  far  as  his  vote 
is  concerned.  I  want  to  know  if  the  government  is  worth  any  thing.  I 
do  not  iliink  my  people  want  me  to  compromise  their  interests,  and  if 
they  do,  I  will  not  do  it.  [Cries  of  "  good."]  Every  compromise  that 
has  been  made  has  l)een  violated  by  the  south.  There  is  an  eternal  an- 
tagonism that  must  be  settled,  and  we  may  as  well  have  it  settled  now  as 
at  any  other  time.     [Applause.] 

Capt.  Phelps,  of  the  United  States  army,  followed  in  some  remarks. 
He  announced  his  willingness  to  enroll  a  regiment  of  volunteers  in  Ches- 
ter county.  Pa.,  if  the  people  wished  it,  to  ))c  placed  at  the  di^^position  of 
the  sovereign  of  the  United  States,  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union  and 
the  constitution,  and  he  cared  not  whether  it  was  James  Buchanan  or 
Abraham  Lincoln. 


35 

This  lieutenant  general  of  the  army,  who  is  mentioned  in 
the  first  of  the  preceding  paragraphs  is,  as  every  one  knows, 
a  Virginian  by  birth,  a  native  of  the  county  of  Dinwiddie, 
though  a  New  Yorker  in  taste  and  residence,  who  has  long 
since  declared  that  slaveiy  ought  to  be  extinguished.  Now, 
Virginians,  I  ask  you,  what  have  you  to  hope  for,  fiom  the 
native  of  the  north,  the  black  republican,  whose  nature  has 
been  never  softened  by  the  genial  climate  and  social  inter- 
course of  the  south,  when  this  your  brother  of  Virginia,  thus 
pants  for  war,  and  is  eager  to  h^ad  the  myrmidons  and  mer- 
cenaries of  the  black  republican  government  against  you? 
Why  do  these  people  desire  to  make  war  upon  you  and  slay 
you,  and  subjugate  your  children  and  desolate  your  land? 
Do  you  suppose  that  it  is  for  the  purpose  of  preserving  an 
institution  to  which  they  deny  legal  existence,  and  which 
they  denounce  as  a  crime  ?  Or  is  it  not  because  they  can, 
in  no  other  way,  manifest  their  "sympathy  with  republi- 
canism"— their  sympathy  for  your  slaves,  and  their  enmity 
to  you?  They  know  that  if  you  go  out  of  the  Union,  and 
take  your  slaves  with  you,  they  cannot  manifest  their  sym- 
pathy for  the  one,  and  their  hatred  of  the  other ;  aud,  there- 
fore, they  desire  to  keep  you,  where  they  can  do  both,  'm  the 
Union  with  crime!  until  they  can  extinguish,  exterminate  the 
crime,  by  abolishing  slavery  ;  and  then,  oh,  Grod !  what  will 
be  the  scenes  whicii  you  Virginians,  who  may  survive  the 
war,  will  witness  ?  The  histoiy  of  the  massacres  of  St.  Bar- 
tholomew and  St.  Domingo,  furnish  but  an  imperfect  glimpse 
of  what  must  be  your  fate,  aud  the  fate  of  the  south,  when 
four  millions  of  slaves  shall  be  emancipated  and  turned  loose 
upon  you,  your  wives,  your  daughters  and  sisters,  with  the 
government  army  in  possession  of  every  fortress  within  your 
limits,  ready  to  sustain  and  protect  them  against  you.  Oh ! 
Virginians,  will  you  not  learn  wisdom  from  your  enemy,  and 
avail  yourselves  of  the  warning  and  the  time  for  prejiaration 
which  God  allows  you?     Are  you  deaf  and  blind,  that  you 


36 

will  not  see  and  hear,  and  require  yet  more  to  convince  you 
that  you  should  secede  without  delay  ?  Will  nothing  con- 
vince you  but  the  war-whoop  and  the  sound  of  the  clarion, 
as  the  army  of  Lincoln,  led  by  your  Lieutenant  General  Scott, 
marches  upon  you,  to  slaughter  your  people  and  desolate  your 
land?  Will  you  wait  unprepared,  like  men  stupefied  with 
terror,  until  the  shrieks  of  your  women,  amid  the  flames  of 
your  homes,  shall  arouse  you,  too  late,  to  sense  and  to  shame  ? 
The  government  is  crumbling  around  you ;  to  what  end  shall 
you  remain  in  connection  with  it  ?  Some  say,  for  the  sake  of 
the  Union — to  preserve  the  Union — the  glorious  Union,  as 
they  term  it.  To  these,  I  reply  that  there  is  no  Union ;  the 
Union  of  which  they  speak  is  at  an  end — the  glorious  Union, 
long  since,  at  an  end.  Its  glory,  for  years,  has  been  acquired 
by  the  violation  of  the  constitution,  and  the  pillage  and  op- 
pression of  the  south ;  and  the  states  of  the  south  have  re- 
solved to  submit  no  longer.  South  Carolina,  the  game-cock 
of  the  south — the  noblest  republic  on  eaiih — has  led  the  way, 
and  now  guards  our  ThermopylcS.  But  if  she  had  not  broken 
the  accursed  bond  which  bound  you  to  the  feet  of  your  op- 
pressors, would  not  you  Virginians,  who  have  hitherto  led  the 
hosts  of  constitutional  liberty,  now  burst  them  and  free  your 
country  from  the  tyrants  who  oppress  you  ?  The  Union — 
what  is  the  Union  but  your  form  of  government  designed  to 
protect  you,  your  property  and  your  liberty,  which  was  glori- 
ous while  it  did  so,  because  it  did  so,  but  is  now  as  odious 
because  it  does  not,  as  it  was  glorious  because  it  did  ?  The 
glory  of  the  Union  is  nonsense.  The  glory  of  a  government 
is  the  glory  of  the  nation — and  Vattel  informs  us,  that  "  the 
true  gloiy  of  a  nation  consists  in  the  favorable  opinion  of 
men  of  vdsdom  and  discernment ;  it  is  acquired  by  the  vir- 
tues or  good  qualities  of  the  head  and  the  heart,  and  by  great 
actions,  which  are  the  fruits  of  those  virtues."  What  claim 
has  the  Union  now  to  be  entitled  glorious,  under  this  defini- 
tion?    But,  if  it  still  were  glorious  to  all  the  rest  of  the 


37 

world,  and  unjust,  oppressive  and  tyrannical  to  you,  would 
you  submit  to  it?  Have  you  degenerated  since  the  days  of 
your  fathers  ?  If  you  have  not,  then  look  upon  their  deeds, 
and  listen  to  their  words,  and  imitate  the  one  and  profit  by 
the  others.  When  Patrick  Henry  and  his  prophetic  associates 
foretold  the  aggressions  of  "  the  Union,"  Mx.  Madison  replied 
in  the  4-5th  number  of  the  Federalist,  in  the  following  noble 
and  emphatic  language : 

"  We  have  heard  of  the  impious  doctrine  in  tlie  old  world, 
that  the  people  were  made  for  kings,  not  kings  for  the  peo- 
ple. Is  the  same  doctrine  to  be  revived  in  another  shape,  in 
the  new,  that  the  solid  happiness  of  the  people  is  to  be  sacri- 
ficed to  the  views  of  political  institutions  of  a  diflereut  Ibrm  ? 
It  is  too  early  for  politicians  to  presume  on  our  forgetting 
that  the  public  good,  the  real  welfare  of  the  great  body  of 
the  people,  is  the  supreme  object  to  be  pursued,  and  that  no 
form  of  government  whatever  has  any  other  value  than  as  it 
may  be  fitted  for  the  attainment  of  this  object.  Were  the 
plan  of  the  convention  adverse  to  the  public  happiness,  my 
voice  would  be,  reject  the  plan.  Were  the  Union  itself  in- 
consistent with  the  public  ha^ipiness,  it  would  be,  abolish  the 
Union. 

If  you  have  not  degenerated,  then,  Virginians,  awake  to  the 
dangers  which  surround  j'ou,  and  arise  and  meet  them  with 
the  dignity  and  det(!rmination  which  become  you,  and  they 
call  for,  and,  in  the  language  of  James  Madison,  "  abolish  the 
Union." 

VIRGINIUS. 


Ought  the  Southern  States  to  Secede  ? 


In  addition  to  the  considerations  mentioned  in  my  last 
number,  let  me  add  a  few  others  of  similar  import.  I  have 
shown  that  the  people,  who  arc  now  most  violent  in  their 
denunciations  of  Soutli  Carolina  and  all  seceding  states ;  the 
most  vociferous  in  favor  of  the  Union;  and  the  most  bloody 
in  their  programme  of  coercion,  are  the  freedom  shriekers, 
and  the  men  who  denounce  slavery  as  a  daily  crime.  Let  me 
add,  that  they  are  the  freedom  shriekers  who  expelled  the 
south  from  Kansas,  and  now  support  Montgomeiy  and  his 
lawless  band,  so  that  the  "  freedom  shiiekers"  and  "  the 
Union  shouters"  now  shriek  and  shout  in  the  same  key,  from 
the  same  platform,  and  that  platfonn  is  "the  Union,"  "the 
glorious  Union."  Can  you,  Virginians,  stand  upon  this  same 
platfonn  ?  Is  the  platform  of  Seward  and  Lincoln,  Hale, 
Wade,  Banks  and  Giddings,  the  platform  of  the  south?  If 
it  is,  then  are  we  guilty  hypocrites,  and  criminals,  who  deserve 
that  Lincoln  and  his  lieutenant  general,  vdth  their  myrmi- 
dons, should  overrun  and  subdue  us,  for  having  by  different 
professions,  and  opposition  to  the  abolitionists,  aroused  them 
to  their  present  fury — and  we  are  unworthy  to  take  position 
in  the  line  with  South  Carolina. 

But  if  their  platform  is  not  ours,  then  is  the  Union,  which 
is  their  platform,  not  a  Union  for  us,  and  wc  may  claua  fra- 
ternity with  the  gallant  men  who  have  imjieriled  all  for  honor 
and  libcity,  and  over  whom  I  pray  that  the  God  of  peace  and 
of  battles  will  watch,  and  give  them  peace,  if  it  may  be,  and 
if  war  must  come,  bear  them  safely  tluough  it,  victorious 
over  every  foe. 


40 

Again,  Vattcl,  at  p.  4,  says,  "  The  end  or  object  of  civil 
society  is  to  procure  for  the  citizens  whatever  they  stand  in 
need  of,  for  the  necessities,  the  conveniences,  the  accommo- 
dation of  life,  and  in  general,  whatever  constitutes  happi- 
ness— with  the  peaceful  possession  of  property,  a  method  of 
obtaining  justice  with  security,  and  finally,  a  mutual  defence 
against  all  external  violence." 

Again,  at  page  3,  he  says,  "  Finally,  several  sovereign 
states  may  unite  themselves  together,  by  a  perpetual  confe- 
deracy, without  ceasing  to  be,  each  individually,  a  perfect 
state.  They  will  together  constitute  a  federal  republic ;  their 
joint  deliberations  vnW  not  unpair  the  sovereignty  of  each 
member,  though  they  may,  in  certain  respects,  put  some  re- 
straint on  the  exercise  of  it,  in  virtue  of  voluntaiy  engage- 
ments. A  person  does  not  cease  to  be  free  and  independent 
when  he  is  obliged  to  fulfill  engagements,  which  he  has  vo- 
luntarily contracted." 

And  again,  he  says,  "  We  have  said  that  an  independent 
nation,  which,  without  becoming  a  member  of  another  state 
in  order  to  obtain  protection,  is  released  from  its  engage- 
ments as  soon  as  that  protection  fails,  even  though  the  fail- 
ure happen  through  the  inability  of  the  protector." 

Now,  I  submit  that  whether  you  regard  this  Union  as  a 
federal  republic  as  Vattel  defines  it,  and  we  the  secessionists 
maintain  it  is,  or  whether  you  regard  it  as  a  consolidated  go- 
vernment, as  the  coercionists  do,  it  has  for  many  years  past 
failed  in  every  one  of  its  duties  to  the  south,  the  perform- 
ance of  which  was  necessary  to  bind  the  south  to  it,  and 
threatens  still  more  wrong,  viz : 

First — It  has  permitted  the  northern  states  to  slander  and 
revile  us ;  to  plunder  us  of  our  property ;  to  slay  our  peo- 
ple— and  thus  has  failed  to  afford  us  protection : 

Secondly — It  has  thus  failed  to  promote  our  happiness, 
which  it  was  its  duty  to  do  : 


41 

Thirdly — It  has  not  secured  to  us  the  peaceful  enjoyment 
of  our  property: 

And  lastly — It  has  not  afforded  us  a  method  of  obtaining 
justice,  because  it  has  pennitted  the  northern  and  eastern 
states  to  pass  laws  to  defeat  our  justice;  and  the  party  now 
controlling  the  Union,  has  avowed  its  puqiose  still  farther  to 
deprive  us  of  justice,  by  corruptly  reorganizing  the  supreme 
court. 

And  now,  absolved,  as  by  these  .misdeeds  j'ou  ai'e,  from  all 
farther  obligations  to  this  Union,  the  land  resounds  with  the 
cry  "to  amis,"  in  order  to  subdue  you,  because  you  will  not 
submit  to  farther  oppression  and  degradation,  if  not  de- 
struction. 

What  motive  have  you  for  remaining  under  such  a  govern- 
ment '?  'Wliat  good  can  you  accomplish ;  what  evil  avoid 
by  if? 

The  submissionists  reply — 

1.  You  can't  protect  your  property,  your  slaves  especially, 
out  of  the  Union.  To  which  I  reply — there  is  not  the  least 
foundation  for  tliat  idea ;  but  if  there  is,  our  condition  will, 
in  that  respect,  be  no  worse  than  it  is  now,  and  will  be  always 
in  the  Union ;  and  certainly  must  be  better — for  once  out  of 
the  Union,  we  can  form  foreign  alliasces,  if  need  be,  which 
now  we  cannot. 

2.  There  will  be  constant  trouble  with  the  north.  To 
which  I  answer,  that  cannot  well  be  worse  than  it  now  is, 
and  must  be  better;  because  when  out  of  the  Union  we  can, 
by  law,  cut  off  the  northern  trade,  and  exclude  its  citizens 
from  our  country,  if  they  molest  us,  which  now  we  caunot  do. 

3.  They  say  that  we  cannot  bear  the  expenses  of  our  own 
government.  To  which  I  reply,  that  this  idea  is  wholly  un- 
founded ;  for  wc,  the  south,  now  defray  not  only  the  expense 
of  governing  ourselves,  but  a  largo  part  of  that  of  governing 
the  rest  of  the  Union ;  and  when  out  of  the  Union,  we  shall 

6 


m 

have  the  expense  of  our  own  government  only  to  maintain, 
and  our  revenue  will  increase  by  the  restoration  of  our  trade. 
And  finally,  they  say,  that  in  order  to  get  out,  we  must 
have  civil  war.  To  which  I  answer,  that  we  shall  not  have 
civil  war,  if  the  southern  states  go  out,  and  that  we  shall 
certainly  have  it  if  we  remain  in,  unless  we  submit  to  be 
plundered  of  our  property,  and  amalgamate  with  our  negroes. 
But  is  this  an  argument  to  be  treated  otherwise  than  with 
scorn  ?  It  is  an  appeal  to  your  fears,  as  an  inducement  to 
surrender  your  honor  and  your  liberty,  youj  property  and 
your  institutions.  Are  you,  Virginians,  the  descendants  of 
those  men  who  pledged  their  "lives,  then-  fortunes  and  their 
sacred  honor"  for  the  maintenance  of  a  conflict  for  liberty, 
with  a  better,  a  stronger,  and  even  more  glorious  government 
than  this,  and  tamely  bear  an  insult  such  as  this?  Ai'e  you 
so  degenerate,  so  mercenary,  as  calmly  to  listen  to,  and  coolly 
to  weigh  an  argument  which  counsels  you  to  slavery  and  dis- 
honor, because  it  may  be  dangerous,  and  not  pi'ofitable  at 

.first  to  be  otherwise  ?  God  forbid.  Spirits  of  Washington 
and  Jefferson ;  of  Madison,  Marshall  and  Lee ;  of  Marion, 
Sumter  and  Moultrie,  forbid. 

'Twere  insult  enough  to  offer  such  an  argument  to  you  at 
any  time,  but  it  is  iysulTerable  at  such  a  moment  as  this, 
when  you  are  threatened  with  a  war  the  most  nefarious  which 

,has  ever  disgraced  the  earth  since  the  partition  of  Poland. 
When  the  age  is  to  be  insulted,  and  humanity  and  Christianity 
outraged,  by  the  attempt  to  overrun  with  armed  mercenaries 

:the  fairest  land  on  earth,  and  kill  and  subjugate  its  people 
because  they  desire  peacefully  to  change  their  form  of  govern- 
ment, in  order  to  preserve  their  liberty — promote  their  hap- 
piness and  protect  their  property — and  this  by  men  who  wor- 
shipped Kossuth,  who  idolize  the  noble  Garibaldi,  and  stimu- 
late the  discontented  all  over  the  world  to  rise  in  the  name  of 
liberty,  and  overturn  their  government — and  call  themselves 
your  brethren  and  peacemakers ! !     A  generation  of  vipers, 


4^ 

as  well  as  hypocrites,  why  do  ye  not  bum  the  declaration  of 
independence,  denounce  the  name  and  memory  of  Washing- 
ton, destroy  his  statue,  and  convert  Mount  Veraon  into  a 
swine  yard  ?  For  if  we  deserve  death  for  resisting  you,  you 
must  believe  that  Washington  was  a  traitor,  who  should  have 
changed  places  with  Andi-c.  Can  the  people  of  the  south 
justly  anticipate  any  thing  but  injury  and  oppression  from  a 
people  who  now  threaten  and  urge  war  upon  them,  simply 
because  they  desire  to  resume  their  original  form  of  govern- 
ment, under  which  they  lived  prior  to  the  establishment  of 
the  present  constitution  ?  Was  ever  war  so  monstrous,  in- 
excusable, inhuman  and  iniquitous — so  utterly  at  war  with 
the  principles  upon  which  the  Union  was  formed,  and  with 
the  spirit  of  the  age  in  which  we  live?  Never  before,  in  the 
history  of  the  world,  has  such  a  war  been  waged  upon  any 
state  of  a  federal  republic,  which  chose  to  separate  itself  from 
the  other  states,  leaving  them  the  possession  of  thoir  govern- 
ment and  of  all  their  rights ;  and  there  is  no  principle  upon 
which  it  can  be  justified,  which  will  not  equally  justify  the 
pirate,  the  highwayman  and  the  common  plunderer.  Nor, 
was  ever  war  so  absurd  ;  for  when  it  is  over,  if  it  ever  is,  and 
Crod  has  permitted  us  to  be  conquered,  as  he  will  not,  what 
will  the  conquerors  do  with  the  conquered  country?  How 
will  they  hold  and  govern  it?  Wlio  will  be  the  satrap,  who 
will  venture  to  live  in  a  conquered  coimtry,  surroniided  by 
enemies,  who  are  kept  doA\ni  by  force.  Perhaps  the  gallant 
lieutenant  general  will,  who  was  so  pacific  to  the  Indians, 
and  so  unwilling  to  march  against  the  Mexicans,  but  is  now 
so  eager  to  involve  iiis  native  land  in  war,  and  regale  hia 
mercenaries  with  the  blood  of  his  countrymen.  His  pay  and 
rations  are  dear  to  him,  I  know,  for  no  man  is  less  qualified 
to  live  without  them — but  let  me  tell  him,  in  the  language  of 
Edmund  Burke,  when  resisting  in  parliament  the  war  upon 
the  colonies,  that  when  the  war  is  over  he  will  find  "That 
the  south  is  not  subdued.     Not  one  unattacked  village  which 


44 

was  originally  adverse  throughout  that  vast  region,  has  yet 
submitted  from  love  or  terror.  You  have  the  ground  you 
encamji  on,  and  you  have  no  more.  The  cantonments  of  your 
troops  and  your  dominions  are  exactly  of  the  same  extent ; 
you  spread  devastation,  but  you  do  not  enlarge  the  sphere  of 
your  authority." 

Let  me  tell  him,  however,  that  he  will  never  bring  us  to 
that  condition,  for  in  the  language,  again,  of  the  distinguished 
British  statesman  (Burke),  "  in  these  southern  states  (colonies) 
the  spirit  of  liberty  is  more  high  and  haughty  than  in  those 
to  the  northward.  In  Virginia  and  the  Caroliuas  they  have 
a  vast  multitude  of  slaves.  Where  this  is  the  case  in  any 
part  of  the  world,  those  who  are  free  are  by  far  the  most 
proud  and  jealous  of  their  freedom.  Freedom  is  to  them  not 
only  an  enjoyment,  but  a  kind  of  rank  and  privilege ;  and 
these  people  of  the  southern  states  (colonies)  are  much  more 
strongly,  and  with  a  higher  and  more  stubborn  spirit,  at- 
tached to  liberty  than  those  to  the  northward.  Such  were 
all  the  ancient  commonwealths ;  such  were  our  Gothic  an- 
cestors ;  such  in  our  day  were  the  Poles ;  and  such  will  be 
all  masters  of  slaves,  who  are  not  slaves  themselves.  In 
such  a  people,  the  haughtiness  of  domination  combines  with 
the  spirit  of  freedom,  fortifies  it,  and  renders  it  invincible." 
And  as  to  this  pettifogging  and  absurd  idea  of  treating  the 
citizens  of  the  seceding  states  as  criminal  offenders  against 
federal  law,  I  beg  leave  to  silence  and  forever  extinguish  it, 
by  applying  to  it  the  language  of  Edmund  Burke,  when  a 
similar  proposition  in  respect  to  the  colonies  was  made  in  the 
British  parliament.  He  says,  "  At  this  proposition  I  must 
pause  for  a  moment.  The  thing  seems  a  great  deal  too  big 
for  my  ideas  of  jurisprudence.  It  should  seem  to  my  way  of 
conceiving  such  matters,  that  there  is  a  wide  difference  in 
reason  and  policy  between  the  mode  of  proceeding  on  the 
irregular  conduct  of  scattered  individuals,  or  even  of  bands 
of  men,  who  disturb  order  within  the  state,  and  the  civil  dis- 


45 

sensions,  which  may  from  time  to  time,  on  great  questions, 
agitate  the  several  communities  which  compose  a  gi-eat  em- 
pire. It  looks  to  me  to  be  naiTow  and  pedantic  to  apply  the 
ordinary  ideas  of  criminal  justice  to  this  great  public  contest. 
I  do  not  understand  the  method  of  drawing  up  an  indictment 
against  a  whole  people.  I  cannot  insult  and  ridicule  the 
feelings  of  millions  of  my  fcllow-crcaturcs,  as  Sir  Edward 
Coke  insulted  one  excellent  individual  (Sir  Walter  Raleigh) 
at  the  bar.  I  am  not  ripe  to  pass  sentence  on  the  gravest 
public  bodies  entrusted  witli  magistracies  of  great  authority 
and  dignity,  and  charged  with  the  safety  of  their  fellow- 
citizens,  upon  the  very  same  title  that  I  am.  I  really  think 
that  for  wise  men  this  is  not  judicious;  for  sober  men  not 
decent;  for  minds  tinctured  with  humanity,  not  mild  and 
merciful." 

As  if  however  to  render  their  cause  more  infamous  and  de- 
testable, if  possible,  in  the  eyes  of  Christendom,  we  have  been 
told  that  we  have  an  internal  foe  to  guard  against ;  insurrec- 
tions have  been  attempted  and  servile  war  is  threatened  as 
the  adjuncts  of  the  semi-civilized  but  savage  warfare  of  the 
white  men.  To  the  micarthly  and  infernal  demons  who  make 
this  suggestion,  let  me  give  the  rebuke  of  Edmund  Burke  to 
the  British  government,  when  a  similar  suggestion  was  made 
by  the  enemies  of  tlie  south  of  tliat  day,  when  he  said, 
"With  regard  to  the  high  aristocratic  spirit  of  Virginia  and 
the  southern  colonies,  it  has  been  proposed,  I  know,  to  re- 
duce it  by  declaring  a  general  enfranchisement  of  their  slaves. 
This  project  has  had  its  advocates  and  panygerists,  yet  I 
never  could  argue  myself  into  any  opinion  of  it.  Slaves  are 
often  nuich  attached  to  their  masters.  A  general  wild  ofl'er 
of  liberty  would  not  always  be  accepted.  History  furnishes 
few  instances  of  it.  It  is  sometimes  as  hard  to  persuade 
slaves  to  be  free  as  it  is  to  compel  free  men  to  be  slaves  ;  and 
in  this  auspicious  scheme  we  should  have  both  these  pleasing 
tasks  on  our  hands  at  once.     But  when  we  talk  of  enfran- 


"/ 


Ll 


46 

cliisemcut,  do  we  not  perceive  that  the  American  master  may 
enfranchise  too,  and  arm  servile  hands  in  defence  of  freedom? 
a  measure  to  which  other  people  have  had  recourse  more 
than  once,  and  not  without  success,  in  a  desperate  situation 
of  their  aftairs."  And  to  this  let  me  add  the  enquiry.  What 
would  be  the  condition  of  the  grand  army  of  the  lieutenant 
general,  if  the  slaves  of  the  south  were  told,  You  shall  have 
a  hundred  dollars  for  eveiy  soldier  you  may  kill,  and  your 
freedom  too,  if  you  desire  it,  with  the  plunder  of  the  camp  ? 
But  I  recur  to  the  enquiry.  What  can  you  hope  for  by  con- 
tinued union  with  men  who  without  provocation  have  perse- 
cuted you  for  thirty  years,  and  now  propose  to  show  their 
love  for  you,  by  making  war  upon  you  in  the  most  savage 
and  inhuman  form  ?  Will  they  be  less  unjust  and  oppressive 
in  the  future,  because  they  find  you  timid  and  submissive 
now  ?  or  will  they  not,  when  taught  by  your  craven  spirit  to 
despise  you,  become  more  insolent,  oppressive  and  tyrannical? 

There  are  some,  however,  who  still  cling  to  the  hope  of 
adjustment,  or  oppose  secession  as  the  remedy,  and  call  for  a 
convention  of  all  the  states,  or  favoring  secession,  advocate 
what  is  called  a  central  confederacy — and  one  at  least — 
nomcn  pnedarimi — entitled  always  to  be  heard  with  respect, 
suggests  that  we  fight  in  the  Union,  for  the  Union,  for  the 
army  and  navy. 

Let  us  examine  briefly  these  different  suggestions  : 

1.  The  hope  of  compromise — It  is  an  ignis  fatuus,  which 
can  only  have  the  effect  of  preventing  you  from  making  any 
preparation  for  your  defence  until  Lincoln  is  installed,  and  all 
the  materials  of  war  prepared.  No  sane  man,  who  is  candid, 
can  really  hope  for  it. 

2.  A  convention  of  all  the  states — Can  any  thing  more 
fatal  to  the  south  be  conceived  ?  What  is  the  cause  of  our 
present  troubles?  The  fiiithless  refusal  of  the  non-slave- 
holding  states  to  comply  with  the  guarantees  of  the  present 
constitution  ;  and  does  any  man  really  believe  that  the  peo- 


47 

pie  who  will  not  comply  with  the  present  guarantees,  will 
give  you  better  ones  ?  The  difficulty  is  not  that  the  present 
guarantees  are  not  adequate,  but  that  they  are  disregarded  by 
the  anti-slavery  majority ;  and  the  south  would  be  perfectly 
content  if  those  guarantees  were  observed. 

If,  then,  the  enemies  of  the  sonth  are  willing  to  give 
stronger  guarantees,  a  fortiori,  they  would  obseiTe  the  exist- 
ing guarantees ;  and  it  is  certain,  therefore,  that  if  they  will 
not  observe  existing  guarantees,  they  will  not  give  others 
which  are  better. 

But  what  will  guarantees  effect  but  to  cheat  and  delude ; 
for  the  same  majority,  which  is  unjust  and  unprincipled 
enough  to  violate  existing  guarantees,  could  just  as  easily, 
and  would,  violate  new  ones.  Is  it  not  absolutely  certain, 
however,  that  the  constitutional  guarantees,  wiiich  a  conven- 
tion formed  now  would  give  you,  would  be  inferior  to  those 
now  existing,  for  else  there  would  be  no  necessity  for  a  con- 
vention. But  does  any  man  doubt  that  any  convention  which 
should  mc(!t  now  would  deprive  you  of  your  slave  represen- 
tation, and  thus  at  the  very  outset  weaken  j'ou  incurably? 
The  same  thing  may  be  said  of  a  central  confederacy,  in 
which  the  anti-slavery  party  would  necessarily  prevail. 

In  truth,  in  my  opinion,  the  real  design  of  some  of  the 
prominent  movers  of  these  schemes  is  to  betray  the  south, 
and  carve  out  a  little  kingdom  for  very  small  7nen. 

3.  I  come  to  consider  the  idea  of  fighting  in  the  Union,  &c. 

To  this  scheme  the  first  objection  is,  that  with  the  present 
parties  there  ought  to  be  no  union  by  the  south,  as  I  have 
endeavored  to  show;  there  cannot  be  a  fraternal  and  equal 
union  between  southeru  slaveholders  and  northern  fanatical 
abolitionists:  and  if  this  be  true,  then  there  is  no  Union  to 
fight  fur,  except  the  union  of  the  southern  states,  if  it  is  de- 
nied us. 

Tlie  next  objection  is,  that  war  is  the  very  tiling  to  be 
avoided  if  practicable,  not  only  because  it  is  a  terrible  cala- 


48 

mity,  but  to  make  it,  is  the  abandonment  of  the  ground  upon 
which  we  stand,  of  a  right,  peaceably,  to  secede.  And  then 
who  would  we  fight  for  the  army  and  the  navy  ?  Of  course 
the  army  and  navy  themselves :  and  to  enable  us  to  do  that 
in  the  Union,  we  must  continue  to  pay  duties  to  furnish  mo- 
ney to  maintain  and  equip  the  army  and  navy,  which  we  are 
fighting,  and  must  at  the  same  time  maintain  our  own  forces. 
It  seems  to  me  that  this  would  be  most  impolitic,  and  by  all 
means  to  be  avoided.  But  suppose  we  did  so,  and  whipped 
the  army  and  navy,  what  should  we  do  with  it?  We  should 
hang  the  lieutenant  general  of  course,  and  then  be  like  the 
boy  who  caught  the  bear.  We  should  have  an  army  and 
navy  which  we  did  not  want,  and  could  not  keep,  and  must 
of  course  place  again  immediately  under  the  control  of  a 
black  republican  government,  in  order  that  we  might  have 
the  fun  of  fighting  them  again.  But  I  cannot  perceive  how 
or  where  such  a  war  would  begin.  Should  we  invade  the 
northern  states,  and  make  war  upon  them  ?  I  think  every 
one  will  answer  no.  Should  we  attack  Washington,  and 
drive  off  the  government  ?  If  we  did,  then,  instead  of  hav- 
ing a  Union,  we  should  ourselves  have  dissolved  the  Union, 
and  destroyed  the  government :  and  then  the  question  would 
arise,  How  should  we  establish  another  government  in  the 
Union?  I  confess  I  cannot  comprehend  the  scheme,  or  see 
any  thing  but  ruin  to  the  cause  of  the  south  in  it.  But  if  it 
were  possible  to  define  such  a  sclicme,  so  as  to  make  it  intel- 
ligible and  practical ;  yet  it  would,  it  seems  to  me,  be  the 
worst  possible  for  the  south,  because  it  would,  in  the  eye  of 
the  nation  and  in  the  estimation  of  the  world,  make  the  south 
the  aggressor,  not  seeking  peaceably  to  establish  a  govern- 
ment for  herself,  but  to  overturn  by  arms  the  government  of 
the  other  states,  and  would  justify  the  nefarious  and  inhuman 
war  which  is  about  to  be  waged  upon  her ;  which  I  beseech 
her  not  to  do,  and  pray  to  God  not  to  permit  her  to  do. 
We  are  in  the  right  now:  let  us  continue  so.     If  all  the 


49 

principles  of  the  revolution  of  1776  are  to  be  overthrown 
and  trampled  upon  in  our  blood ;  if  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence is  to  be  proclaimed  a  lie  by  the  American  Union, 
and  under  its  flag — the  sword  is  to  settle  questions  of  political 
right,  and  her  army  dictate  a  government  to  our  people,  let 
us  presei-ve  our  attitude  of  unoflending  right  and  defence,  and 
appealing  to  the  arbiter  of  all  human  events  for  the  justice 
of  our  cause,  bravely  meet  our  foe,  confident  of  victorj'^,  and 
we  cannot  fail.  God  will  not  desert  us  in  such  an  hour ;  and 
the  Christian  nations  of  Europe,  who  vnll  not  permit  even 
the  Turk  to  be  oppressed,  will  not  stand  idly  by  and  see  an- 
other unoflending  clnnstiau  nation  rudely  overrun  and  basely 
slaughtered,  because  it  claims  the  right  to  goveni  itself.  But 
if  they  do,  we  will  still  preserve  our  freedom,  or  die  with 
honor.  If  the  spirit  of  Garibaldi  could  free  Italy,  the  south 
can  never  be  conquered  while  her  sons  are  faithful,  and  have 
Lee,  Garland,  Davis,  Shubrick,  Iiigraham,  Huger  and  the  Ma- 
gruders  to  lead  them. 

VIRGINIUS. 


IC\H 


7f 


APPENDIX. 


As  will  be  seen  from  their  tenor,  when  the  foregoing  num- 
bers were  written,  South  Carolina  only  had  seceded.  Since 
that  time,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida,  and  most 
probably  Louisiana,  have  seceded,  and  the  black  republican 
party  has  assumed  the  most  uncompromising  and  defiant  atti- 
tude. In  the  senate,  resolutions  of  conipiomise  were  oflered 
by  the  venerable  senator  from  Kentucky,  Mr.  Crittenden, 
wliicli  were  eminently  flivorable  to  the  Tiorth,  and  not,  in  my 
opinion,  just  to  the  south,  though  oflered,  I  am  sure,  with 
the  best  motives.  By  a  imanimous  vote  of  the  black  repub- 
licans in  the  senate,  the  resolutions  of  Mr.  Crittenden  were 
rejected,  and  the  violent  declaration  of  war  against  the  south, 
contained  in  the  resolutions  of  Clark  of  New  Hampshire, 
which  are  appended  hereto,  was  adopted ;  and  a  resolution 
containing  a  similar  declaration  of  war,  has  been  passed  by 
the  house  of  representatives ;  and  it  is  the  well  known  and 
avowed  purpose  of  the  black  republicans  to  blockade  all  the 
southern  ports  and  destroy  their  commerce,  as  a  means  of 
subjugating  them. 

A  considerable  part  of  the  federal  anny  has  been  concen- 
trated upon  the  border  of  Virginia,  in  and  near  Washington ; 
and  Mr.  Lincoln,  the  elected  chief  of  the  black  republicans, 
has  selected  as  his  chief  adviser,  his  prime  minister,  William 
H.  Seward,  the  constant  and  unscrupuloiis  enemy  of  the 
south,  and  the  author  of  the.  htoodij  Rorhrstcr  manifcMo. 

What  better,  what  stronger  evidence  of  tln^  determination 
of  Lincoln  to  carry  out  all  the  plans  and  purposes  of  your 
enemies,  and  pursue  you  with  fire  and  sword,  can  you  desire, 


52 

or  can  be  given,  than  the  selection  of  such  a  man  as  his  prin- 
cipal adviser  and  first  cabinet  minister?  What  ground  is 
there  for  hope,  even,  of  peace  and  safety  in  the  Union  with 
Lincoln  and  Seward,  and  the  party  which  they  represent? 
Your  senators,  in  whom  you  have  so  long  confided,  in  an 
address  to  you,  also  hereto  appended,  have  testified  to  you 
that  there  is  none.  In  the  face  of  all  this  testimony,  will 
you  hesitate,  Virginians,  to  resume  the  power  which  you 
granted  to  the  federal  government,  not  that  it  might  oppi-ess 
and  enslave  you,  but  that  it  might  protect  you  and  presei-ve 
your  libei-ty  ? 

Recollect,  I  beseech  you,  that  if  you  yield  now,  you  will 
be  enslaved  forever ;  for  the  ground  assumed  by  your  enemies 
is,  that  you  have  not  the  right  to  secede,  and  they  have  the 
right,  by  arms,  to  subdue  j^ou,  and,  by  the  judgment  of  their 
courts,  to  hang  you,  if  you  attempt  it.  Recollect,  that  the 
government  is,  by  this  theory,  made  a  militarj^  government, 
and  not  a  government  of  the  popular  will  of  a  tree  people : 
Nay,  that  it  is  now  a  military  government,  administered 
mainly  by  the  commanding  general  of  the  army ;  and,  sur- 
rounded by  the  army,  sustained  by  its  cannon  and  bayonets, 
this  black  republican  president  is  to  be  invested  with  supreme 
power ;  with  the  command  of  that  very  army  as  well  as  of 
the  navy.  Is  not  this  the  first  step  always  of  a  military 
despotism  ? 

And  now,  when  you  also  recollect  that  fortress  Monroe  and 
fort  Calhoun,  upon  your  own  shores,  and  commanding  your 
noble  harbor  and  its  commerce,  now  is  and  will  continue  to 
be  in  the  hands  of  your  enemies,  and  under  the  control  of 
their  president  and  his  army,  resistance  to  whom  will  be 
treason,  and  submission  dishonor  and  ruin — what  excuse  will 
you  be  able  to  offer  to  your  children,  to  your  posterity,  and 
your  countiy,  for  your  failure,  if  you  should  fail  to  avail 
yourselves  of  the  time  and  opportunity  which  are  now  oflfered 
you  to  rescue  them  from  this  ruin,  and  preserve  their  liberty  ? 


53 

Recollect,  that  if  you  sejiarute  yourselves  from  the  south, 
you  must  be  allied  to  the  north,  and  governed  by  the  men 
who  have  already  oppressed  you,  with  your  power  of  protec- 
tion diminished  by  the  secession  of  the  south  :  and  if  you  and 
they  together  could  not  protect  your  rights,  how  can  you  do 
so,  when  deprived  of  their  aid  ?  Can  you  doubt  for  a  mo- 
ment that  in  such  a  condition  yoti  will  be  ground  to  the  dust 
in  poverty  ?  Cut  off  from  the  south,  your  negroes  will  be 
immediately  emancipated,  or  rendered  equally  valueless  and 
more  dangerous,  by  the  aid  and  sympathy  of  their  friends, 
and  your  enemies,  your  northern  allies. 

Recollect,  that  if  you  go  with  the  south,  you  will  probably, 
nay,  certainly,  caiTy  all  the  border  slave  states  with  you,  and 
thus  prevent,  by  the  power  which  will  be  exhibited,  a  civil 
war — while,  if  you  separate  j^ourselves  fi-om  the  south,  you 
will  make  civil  war  certain — and  then,  iu  the  Union,  you 
must,  as  traitors,  as  they  say,  fight  against  the  Union,  or  join 
the  black  republicans,  and  fight  against  the  south — which  I 
am  sure  you  will  never  do. 

In  tlie  name  of  liberty,  for  the  sake  of  peace,  for  the  love 
of  honor,  justice  and  equality,  by  your  love  of  Virginia,  and 
her  ancient  renown,  I  beseech  you,  Virginians,  to  strike  while 
there  is  yet  time,  to  presei^e  the  liberty  and  protect  the  pro- 
perty of  the  people,  and  savt^  the  state  from  the  pollution  of 
black  republican  rule. 

VIRGINIUS. 


54 


ADDRESS 

To  the  People  of   Virginia,  from  their  Representatives. 


The  following  address  to  the  people  of  Virginia  has  been  adopted  by 
ten  of  fifteen  of  their  representatives  in  congress.  The  paper  was  not 
presented  to  Hon.  Wm.  Smith,  he  being  detained  in  Virginia  by  illness : 

TO   THE    PEOPLE   OF   VIRGINIA. 

We  deem  it  our  duty,  as  your  representatives  at  Washington,  to  lay 
before  you  such  infonnation  as  we  may  possess,  in  regard  to  the  probable 
action  of  congress  in  the  present  alarming  condition  of  the  country. 

At  the  beginning  of  this  session,  now  more  than  half  over,  committees 
were  appointed  in  both  houses  of  congress,  to  consider  the  state  of  the 
Union.  Neither  committee  has  been  able  to  agree  upon  any  mode  of  set- 
tlement of  the  pending  issues  between  the  north  and  the  south. 

The  republican  members  in  both  committees  rejected  propositions  ac- 
knowledging the  right  of  property  in  slaves,  or  recommendjng  the  division 
of  the  territories  between  the  slaveholding  and  non-slaveholding  states,  by 
a  geograpliical  line. 

In  the  senate,  the  propositions  commonly  known  as  Mr.  Crittenden's, 
were  voted  against  by  every  repuhlican  senator ;  and  the  house,  on  a  vote 
by  yeas  and  nays,  refused  to  consider  certain  propositions  moved  by  Mr. 
Etheridge,  which  were  even  less  favorable  to  the  south  than  Mr.  Crit- 
tenden's. 

A  resolution,  giving  a  pledge  to  sustain  the  president  in  the  use  of  force 
against  seceding  states,  was  adopted  in  the  house  of  representatives  by  a 
large  majority;  and  in  the  senate,  every  republican  voted  to  substitute  for 
Mr.  Crittenden's  propositions,  resolutions  oifered  by  Mr.  Clark  of  New 
Hampshire,  declaring  that  no  new  concessions,  guarantees,  or  amend- 
ments to  the  constitution,  were  necessary ;  that  the  demands  of  the  south 
were  unreasonable,  and  that  the  remedy  for  the  present  danger  was 
simply  to  enforce  the  laws — in  other  words,  coercion,  and  war. 

In  this  state  of  facts,  our  duty  is  to  warn  you  that  it  is  vain  to  hope  for 
any  measures  of  conciliation  or  adjustment  from  congress,  which  you 
could  accept.  We  are  also  satisfied  that  the  republican  party  designs,  by 
civil  war  alone,  to  coerce  the  southern  states,  under  the  pretext  of  enforc- 
ing the  laws,  unless  it  shall  become  speedily  apparent  that  the  seceding 
states  arc  so  numerous,  determined  and  united,  as  to  make  such  an  at- 
tempt hopeless. 

We  are  confirmed  in  these  conclusions,  by  our  general  intercourse  here, 
by  the  speeches  of  the  republican  leaders  here  and  elsewhere,  by  the  re- 


55 

cent  refusals  of  the  legislatures  of  Vermont,  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  to 
repeal  their  obnoxious  personal  liberty  laws,  by  the  action  of  the  Illinois 
legislature  on  resolutions  approving  the  Crittenden  propositions,  and  by 
the  adoption  of  resolutions  in  tlie  New  York  and  Massachusetts  legisla- 
tures (doubtless  to  be  followed  by  others),  offering  men  and  money  for 
the  war  of  coercion. 

We  have  thus  placed  before  you  the  facts  and  conclusions  which  have 
become  manifest  to  us  from  this  post  of  observation,  where  you  have 
placed  us.  There  is  nothing  to  be  hoped  from  congress ;  the  remedy  is 
with  you  alone,  when  you  assemble  in  sovereign  convention. 

We  conclude  by  expressing  our  solemn  conviction  that  prompt  and  de- 
cided action  by  the  people  of  Virginia  in  convention,  will  afford  the 
surest  means,  under  the  providence  of  God,  of  averting  an  impending 
civil  war,  and  preserving  the  hope  of  reconstructing  a  Union  already  dis- 
solved. 

(Signed) 

J.  M.  Mason.  E.  S.  Martin. 

R.  Af.  T.  Hunter.  H.  A.  Edmundson. 

D.  C.  Dejaknette.  Roger  A.  Pryor. 

M.  R.  H.  Garnett.  Thos.  S.  Bocock. 

Shelton  F.  Leake.  A.  G.  Jenkins. 

Washington  City,  22d  January  1861. 


56 


RESOLUTIONS 

Offered  in  the  Seriate  of  the  United  States,  15th  of  Jammrij 
1861,  by  Mr.  Clark  of  New  Hampshire,  as  a  substitute  for 
the  Resolutions  of  Mr.  Crittenden. 


Kesolvecl,  that  the  provisions  of  the  constitution  are  ample  for  the  pre- 
servation of  the  Union  and  the  protection  of  all  the  national  interests  of 
the  countiy ;  that  it  needs  to  be  obeyed  rather  than  amended,  and  that 
an  extrication  from  our  present  danger  is  to  be  looked  for  in  strenuous 
efforts  to  preserve  the  peace,  protect  the  pubUc  property,  and  enforce  the 
laws,  rather  than  in  new  guarantees  for  particular  interests,  compromises 
for 'particular  difficulties,  or  concessions  to  unreasonable  demands. 

Resolved,  that  all  attempts  to  dissolve  the  present  Union,  or  overthrow 
or  abandon  the  present  constitution,  with  the  hope  or  expectation  of  con- 
Btructiug  a  new  one,  are  dangerous,  illusory  and  destructive ;  that,  in  the 
opinion  of  the  senate  of  the  United  States,  no  such  reconstruction  is  practi- 
cable, and,  therefore,  to  the  maintenance  of  the  existing  Union  and  con- 
stitution should  be  directed  all  the  energies  of  all  the  departments  of  the 
government,  and  the  efforts  of  all  good  citizens. 


penmaliFe* 

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